LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 


i 
Race  &  Nationality 

An  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  . 
and  Growth  of  Patriotism 


BY 

JOHN    OAKESMITH,   D.Lit.,   M.A. 

n  / 

AUTHOR  OP 
"THE  RELIGION  OF  PLUTARCH:  A  PAGAN  CREED  OF  APOSTOLIC  TIMES" 


"Augescunt  aliae  gentes,  aliae  minuuntur, 
Inque  brevi  spatio  mutantur  saecla  animantum 
Et  quasi  cursores  vital  lampada  traclunt.  " 

LUCRETIUS,  II.  77-79. 


T&    rS>v    'f,\\i\v(av 

ytvovs  aAAct  rr\s  Siavolas  SoKfiv 

ISOCRATES,  Panegyricut  51] 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


"  The  principle  of  nationality  has  defied  definition  and 
even  analysis." — The  Eastern  Question  (p.  174),  by 
J.  A.  R.  Marriott,  M.P.  (The  Clarendon  Press,  1917). 

"  With  a  new  world  opening  before  us,  it  is  just  the 
moment  to  take  stock  of  words  and  phrases  in  common 
use,  and  to  give  them  precision  and  directness." — Lord 
Esher  :  Letter  on  ' '  The  Meaning  of  Patriotism  "  in  The 
Morning  Post,  October  9,  1918. 


Printed  in  England: 


IN    GRATITUDE    AND    ADMIRATION 

THIS  VOLUME   IS   INSCRIBED 

TO   THE    MEMORY    OF 

HUMPHREY    NEVILLE    DICKINSON 

(2ND   LIEUT.    3RD    ROYAL   WEST   KENT   REGIMENT) 

AUTHOR  OF  "KEDDY"  AND  OTHER  WORKS 

WHO  FELL  ON  THE  SOMME 

IN  OCTOBER  1916 


6'aperaj  cdvov  fj.4yav,   dAAa  ns  &aT(o 
ToiisS*  ialStav  <Wff/cej|>  r\dr(i)  vwep  irarptSos. 


PREFACE 

IF  the  writer  of  the  following  pages  had  been  one  of 
that  constantly  growing  band  who  foresaw  the  early 
outbreak  of  a  universal  war  in  which  the  triumph  or 
defeat  of  the  principle  of  nationality  was  to  be  the 
dominating  issue,  his  treatment  of  the  subject  would 
probably  have  been  wanting  in  a  certain  boldness  which 
perhaps  now  marks  it,  even  if  he  had  had  the  courage  to 
enter  upon  it  at  all.  It  would  have  required  more  de- 
tachment than  he  is  capable  of  to  have  used  as  a  means 
of  intellectual  diversion,  or  even  of  earnest  study,  a 
theme  which  was  so  soon  to  be  the  argument  and  inspira- 
tion of  political  genius  and  military  valour.  But  as  a 
matter  of  fact  this  book  was  written  as  a  whole  before 
the  war  broke  out,  at  a  time,  that  is,  when  the  vast 
majority  of  the  English  people  had  as  little  anticipation 
of  war  as  they  had  of  an  invasion  from  the  stellar 
spheres.  And  now  that  the  war  and  its  issues  are  com- 
pellingly  before  us,  perhaps  the  very  fact  that  these 
chapters  were,  for  the  most  part,  put  together  in  an 
atmosphere  necessarily  detached  from  its  passionate 
excitements,  may  make  them  more  useful  as  an  attempt 
to  explain  the  origin  and  describe  the  growth  of  that 
spirit  of  national  patriotism  to  which  the  war  has  given 
so  glorious  and  terrible  a  consecration. 

This  indulgence  in  the  personal  note  may,  perhaps, 
be  allowed  to  carry  itself  so  far  as  a  brief  account  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  the  book  came  to  be  written 
and  the  purpose  of  the  author  in  writing  it. 

Having  almost  unconsciously  accepted,  as  part  of 
the  tradition  in  which  he  was  educated,  what  the  late 
Lord  Acton,  with  his  characteristic  air  of  thin-lipped 
acrimony,  calls  "  the  whig  principle  of  nationality,"  he 
found,  when  the  principle  was  called  in  question,  as  it 
has  frequently  been  during  the  last  twenty  years,  that 
he  had  no  very  clear  idea  as  to  what  nationality  was; 

vii 


PREFACE 

and  he  could  only  blindly  and  silently  resent  the  asser- 
tions of  those  who  sneered  at  nationality  as  a  meta- 
physical fiction,  and  put  in  its  place  mere  groups  of 
economic  inter-relationships,  or  organizations  of  Labour, 
or  of  Science,  or  of  Literature,  which  claimed  to  be 
entirely  independent  of  purely  national  organizations ; 
or,  what  was  least  satisfactory  of  all,  a  vague  "  Cos- 
mopolitan "  sentiment  which  could  find  no  footing  in 
any  actual  phenomena,  whether  of  history  or  the  present 
day.  The  only  importance  of  these  confessions  lies  in 
the  fact  that  they  were  not  the  mar£  of  a  singular  state 
of  mind,  for,  as  Sir  J.  R.  Seeley  said  thirty-five  years  ago, 
speaking  of  his  fellow-countrymen  in  general,  "  We  take 
no  pains  to  conceive  clearly  or  define  precisely  what 
we  call  a  nationality."  x  And  as  the  present  writer  was 
not  peculiar  in  his  ignorance,  neither  does  he  lay  claim 
to  any  extraordinary  merit  in  having  made  an  attempt 
to  remove  from  his  own  mind  that  vagueness  of  thought 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  distinguished  author  of 
The  Expansion  of  England,  affected  us  all  alike.  He 
hopes,  however,  that,  as  he  has  made  the  attempt,  and, 
he  thinks,  has  attained  to  a  clear  conception  and  precise 
definition  of  nationality,  his  results  may  be  of  service 
to  those  whose  indignation,  necessarily  mute  because 
unsupported  by  knowledge  of  the  facts,  has  been  stirred 
when  they  have  heard  those  who  claimed  some  acquaint- 
ance with  the  subject  call  in  question  what  the  vast 
majority  of  civilized  people  feel  to  be  one  of  the  most 
sacred  and  dominating  inspirations  in  life. 

When,  therefore,  under  the  influence  of  these  indig- 
nant emotions,  he  began  to  examine  the  works  of  those 
who  had  already  dealt  with  the  subject,  he  found  the 
field  most  conspicuously  occupied  by  those  who  main- 
tained that  nationality  was  based  on  "  race,"  and  by 
those  who,  on  the  contrary,  having  disproved  the 
validity  of  all  racial  explanations  of  nationality,  claimed 
that,  at  the  same  time,  they  had  annihilated  nationality 
altogether.  The  protagonist  of  the  first  group  is  the 
German,  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain,  and  the  main- 

1  Seeley 's  The  Expansion  of  England  was  first  published  in  July 
1883.  The  quotation  in  the  text  is  on  p.  220^  the  first  edition. 

viii 


PREFACE 

stay  of  the  opposing  group  is  the  Scotsman,  Mr.  J.  M. 
Robertson,  supported  in  his  main  contentions  by  the 
Englishman,  Mr.  Norman  Angell.  For  the  reasons 
detailed  in  the  course  of  subsequent  chapters  the  writer 
was  unable  to  accept  either  of  these  positions ;  and  he 
was  driven,  therefore,  to  find  some  other  explanation 
than  "  race  "  for  what  he  was  still  compelled  to  regard 
as  the  most  pregnant  fact  of  modern  political  evolution. 
He  thinks  that  he  has  found  it  in  what  may  be  formally 
called  the  principle  of  "  organic  continuity  of  common 
interest,"  to  the  elucidation  of  which  the  constructive 
part  of  this  book  is  devoted,  but  on  which  a  few  brief 
sentences  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  here. 

The  formula  has  three  terms  which  require  preliminary 
definition.  First,  Interest.  By  this  is  not  meant  interest 
in  the  purely  personal  or  selfish  sense.  The  interests  of 
a  man  are  everything  in  which  he  is  interested  :  his 
physical,  intellectual,  moral  and  artistic  powers  and  all 
their  manifold  activities  in  the  sphere  of  'human  life. 
The  common  interests  of  a  group  of  people  are  their 
common  material,  intellectual,  moral  and  artistic 
possessions,  their  social  institutions  and  their  economic 
relations,  and  their  common  sympathy  in  the  proper 
use  of  these  in  the  world  of  experience.  Community 
of  interest  in  this  wide  and  general  sense  is  the  basis  of 
all  social  life,  and,  if  nationality  be  a  form  of  social  life, 
community  of  interest  must  equally  be  the  basis  of 
national  life.  Secondly :  there  is  not  only  community 
of  interest,  but  continuity  of  interest.  The  forces  which 
mould  nationality,  if  there  be  any  such  thing  as  nation- 
ality, are  of  necessity  historical  forces,  since  every 
generation  is  the  inheritor  of  the  social  tradition  and 
culture  of  its  predecessor,  however  much  it  may  modify 
or  improve  the  heritage  before  handing  it  down  to  its 
successor.  Neither  Rome  nor  any  other  nation  was 
built  in  a  day.  Rational  sympathy  looks  backward  and 
forward  as  well  as  to  the  immediate  present.  The 
natural  qualities  possessed  by  all  men,  as  men,  are 
manifested  quite  differently  in  different  communities, 
according  to  the  special  tradition  or  culture  which  has 
been  gradually  formed  through  generations  of  continu- 
ous national  existence.  But  not  only  is  nationality 

ix 


PREFACE 

based  on  common  interest ;  and  on  continuity  of  com- 
mon interest :  the  continuity  of  interest  is,  thirdly, 
organic.  That  is  to  say,  nationality,  like  every  other 
evolutionary  organism,  has  developed  machinery  for 
entering  into  relationships  of  action  and  passion  with 
its  environment;  and,  being  a  human  organism,  it  is 
endowed,  as  part  of  that  machinery,  with  intelligence, 
the  last  fine  product  of  natural  evolution,  which  is 
capable  of  diverting  the  lower  forces  of  natural  evolution 
to  its  own  special  human  purposes.  Under  the  pressure 
of  surrounding  phenomena,  this  organizing  intelligence 
has  developed  a  powerful  and  elaborate  apparatus  for 
the  accomplishment  of  distinctively  national  ends. 
Nationality,  therefore,  is  community  of  interest  devel- 
oped in  course  of  time  into  a  characteristic  traditional 
culture  which  gradually  creates  for  itself  machinery, 
legislative,  administrative  and  other,  for  effecting  its 
ends  in  the  world  of  human  action.  Nationality  is 
organic  continuity  of  common  interest. 

But  an  organism  is  not  only  an  active  phenomenon — 
it  is  capable  not  only  of  effecting  its  purposes,  more  or 
less  successfully,  in  the  external  world — but  it  is  the 
objective  recipient  of  influences  from  the  external 
world.  The  writer  has  not  omitted,  in  its  proper  place, 
to  deal  with  the  possibility  of  a  progressive  national 
development  in  communities  isolated  from  foreign 
influences ;  but  he  has  not  been  able  to  ignore  the  fact 
that  a  main  agent  of  national  development,  paradoxical 
as  the  statement  may  appear,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
operation  of  external  causes;  net  as  forces  eliminating 
the  national  organism — for  how  in  such  a  case  could 
nationality  exist  ? — but  as  moulding  and  being  moulded 
by  the  national  forces  in  a  co-operative  movement 
enriching  and  vivifying  the  genuine  native  tradition. 
The  phrase  which  suggested  itself  to  describe  this 
process,  "  the  commingling  of  atmospheres,"  is,  no 
doubt,  clumsy  enough,  but  perhaps  fairly  clear  to  most 
people;  and  the  writer  can  think  of  no  better.  It  is 
because  Literature — that  clear  record  of  national  culture 
and  tendency — best  exhibits  the  operation  of  this  pro- 
cess of  general  national  development,  that  the  writer 
has  devoted  a  considerable  space  to  the  story  of 


PREFACE 

national  literature  in  our  own  country.  Our  literature, 
no  less  than  other  forms  of  our  social  evolution,  would 
be  deprived  of  much  that  we  now  regard  as  distinct- 
ively national  if  we  could  eliminate  from  its  texture  all 
those  elements  which  the  "  commingling  of  atmospheres  " 
has  introduced  into  it  from  external  sources. 

Nationality,  therefore,  is  organic  continuity  of  com- 
mon interest — the  word  "  organic  "  being  legitimately 
used  to  imply  both  "organism"  and  "  organization  "; 
an  organism  being  the  living  instrument  (  '  organ  ")  of 
natural  forces,  whose  action  through  it  is  not  only 
influenced  by  the  environment,  but  is  capable  also  of 
organizing  the  environment  to  the  more  elastic  and  more 
certain  satisfaction  of  the  increasingly  complicated 
requirements  of  the  organism  and  the  forces  which  it 
represents.  In  other  words,  the  growth  of  nationality 
is  an  evolutionary  process. 

In  order  to  demonstrate  and  illustrate  the  operation 
of  this  principle  of  sociological  evolution,  the  writer  first 
proceeds  to  examine  the  current  popular  views  of 
national  character  and  the  evidence  they  supply  as  to 
the  actual  existence  of  that  phenomenon ;  an  examina- 
tion naturally  followed  by  an  analysis  of  the  more 
prominent  scientific  explanations  of  its  origin  and 
development.  These  investigations  (Chapters  I.  and 
II.)  lead  to  a  provisional  acceptance  of  the  principle  of 
organic  continuity  of  common  interest  as  an  explanation 
of  nationality  and  national  character  in  preference  to 
any  of  the  racial  theories  propounded  to  the  same  end. 
This  provisional  explanation  is  supported  by  a  critical 
examination  of  the  contradictions  and  absurdities  in- 
volved in  the  racial  theories  current  in  historical  and 
political  writers  of  the  present  day  (Chapter  III.),  while 
Chapter  IV.  is  devoted  to  a  careful  inquiry  into  the 
crucial  case  of  the  Jews,  with  special  reference  to  the 
writings  of  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain.  The  ground 
being  thus  cleared  by  a  demonstration  of  the  fallacy  of 
race  as  the  basis  of  nationality,  there  follows  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  principle  of  organic  continuity  of  common 
interest,  chiefly  directed  against  writers  like  Mr.  J.  M. 
Robertson,  who  maintain  that,  with  the  disappearance 
of  race  as  the  operating  cause  of  nationality,  nationality 

xi 


PREFACE 

itself  disappears  (Chapter  V.).  The  principle,  as  thus 
maintained,  is  applied  to  an  account  of  the  origin  and 
growth  of  our  historic  British  nationality  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  present  day  (Chapters  VI.-X.).  The  next 
three  chapters  are  designed  with  the  same  object,  but 
lay  special  emphasis  upon  the  "  commingling  of  atmo- 
spheres "  as  illustrated  by  the  modifications  effected  in 
the  national  tradition  by  the  impulse  of  foreign  influ- 
ences, Chapter  XI.  applying  the  principle  to  the  social 
and  economic  evolution  of  Britain  from  the  Norman 
Conquest  onwards,  and  Chapters  XII.  arid  XIII.  illus- 
trating its  operation  in  the  growth  of  our  national 
literature.  The  two  concluding  Chapters  deal  with 
some  pressing  modern  questions  in  the  light  of  the 
principle  previously  expounded,  such  as  the  relationship 
of  nationality  to  Peace  and  War,  and  to  the  movement 
for  the  establishment  of  a  League  of  Nations.  It  is  here 
suggested  that  War  will  be  made  impossible,  and 
universal  and  lasting  Peace  secured,  not  by  the  sudden 
imposition  of  hastily  manufactured  machinery,  but  by 
the  gradual  extension  from  national  life  to  international 
life  of  that  principle  of  organic  community  of  interest 
which  has  already  established  harmony  within  the 
separate  national  boundaries. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  pretended  that  the  author's 
analysis  accounts  for  all  the  influences,  domestic  and 
foreign,  which  have  contributed  to  produce  and  enrich 
our  national  life.  Political,  social  and  literary  influ- 
ences, which  have  been  the  more  immediate  fields  of 
the  writer's  exposition,  do  not,  in  the  usual  restricted 
sense  of  these  words,  cover  the  whole  ground ;  and  even 
in  working  his  special  field  he  is  aware  of  large  omissions. 
But  the  theme  is  really  inexhaustible ;  and  if  the  writer's 
view  be 'sound,  it  is  sufficiently  important  to  evoke  the 
interest  of  workers  in  other  fields  of  national  activity  : 
in  Religion,  Music,  Painting,  Architecture,  Economics, 
Science,  Education,  Drama ;  indeed,  in  every  sphere  of 
social  thought  and  practice. 

Although  in  carrying  out  his  necessarily  limited  task 
the  writer  has  had  to  tell  over  again  some  oft -told 
episodes  of  our  national  life,  he  is  too  conscious  of  the 
essential  splendour  of  his  theme  to  make  any  pretence 

xii 


PREFACE 

that  he  has  risen  to  the  height  of  his  argument.  He 
who  can  stumble  along  well  enough  by  the  aid  of 
pedestrian  prose  when  the  path  is  plain  and  the  land- 
scape clear,  would  willingly  leave  to  those  endowed 
with  "  the  vision  and  the  faculty  divine  "  the  arduous 
duty  of  pathing  the  intricate  and  ever-mounting  ways 
which  cross  and  recross  in  apparently  aimless  confusion 
the  glorious  panorama  of  our  national  history.  The 
epic  quality  of  the  tale  of  English  nationality  can  only 
be  celebrated  in  some  such  "  glorious  and  lofty  hymn  " 
as  Milton's  mind  proposed  to  herself  "  in  the  spacious 
circuits  of  her  musing  " ;  but  a  call  to  humbler  work 
finds  a  ready  response  in  those  who  really  love  England, 
and  the  writer  will  be  satisfied  if  he  is  able  to  show  that 
the  phenomena  of  our  development  as  a  national  entity, 
multitudinous  as  they  are  and  variegated,  are  the 
harmonious  expression  of  a  continuous  tradition  which 
unites  by  the  sacred  bond  of  a  common  devotion  to 
England  the  famous  or  forgotten  millions  of  her 
unnumbered  generations. 

JOHN  OAKESMITH 

Hounsloio, 
May  1919. 


Xlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

PAOE 

General  Belief  in  the  Existence  of  national  Character :  No 
equally  general  Agreement  as  to  the  Character  of  any 
particular  Nation — The  View  that  national  Character  is 
unchangeable  from  Age  to  Age — The  View  that  it  sum- 
marizes the  separate  Characters  of  all  the  individual  Persons 
in  the  Nation — The  "  Soul "  of  a  People :  the  Nation  as 
"  Crowd  " — Latent  Elements  of  Character — Complexity  of 
the  Subject 1 

CHAPTER  II 

Current  Theories  as  to  the  Origin  and  Development  of  national 
Character — The  "Geographical"  and  "Hereditarian"  Schools 
— M.  Gustavo  Le  Bon  and  his  Theory  of  the  "  Unalterable 
National  Soul " — Von  Ihering :  National  Character  first 
formed  by  geographical  Influences,  then  transmitted  by 
Heredity — Canon  Isaac  Taylor  :  the  Characters  of  European 
Nationalities  already  formed  in  the  primitive  Races  from 
which  they  sprang — Ratzel :  Differences  of  national  Charac- 
ter entirely  due  to  the  Operation  of  geographical  Influences 
— Professor  Cyril  Burt :  Transmission  of  mental  Qualities 
by  Heredity— -Conclusion :  National  Character  the  Product 
of  Environment,  and  not  of  "  racial  "  Heredity  .  .  20 

CHAPTER   III 

The  racial  Fallacy  as  illustrated  in  Politicians  and  Historians 
of  the  present  Day — Mr.  Garvin  and  the  "  sea  Sense  "  of 
the  English — Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  "  Differences  of  Blood  " 
in  Ireland — Sir  Wm.  Ridgeway  and  the  "  ancient  warlike 
Instinct "  of  the  Himalayan  and  Scottish  Highlanders — 
Lord  Acton  and  the  "  Levity  "  and  "  Inconstancy  "  of  the 
French — Dr.  Seton- Watson  and  Roumania  as  "racial  Link 
with  Italy  and  France  " — "  The  Roumanian  never  dies  " — 
Race  Consciousness  an  artificially  created  Element  in  the 
Environment,  often  due  to  false  Readings  of  History— The 
Absurdity  and  Impossibility  of  applying  "  Race  "  as  a  Test 
of  Nationality,  e.  g.  in  Turkey,  Macedonia,  and  the  Balkan 
States  generally  ........  38 

XV 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    IV 

PAGE 

Race  a  metaphysical  Conception,  having  no  Foundation  in 
practical  Life — The  Jews  often  quoted  as  owing  their  mental 
Characteristics  to  Race — German  Imperialists  and  the  Jews  : 
Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain — The  so-called  racial  Qualities 
of  the  Jew  due  to  Environment :  the  Assimilation  of  the 
Jews — Their  successful  Adoption  of  "  foreign  "  Characteris- 
tics— The  alien  and  oriental  "  English  Gentleman  " — The 
French  Nationalists  and  the  Jew — Maurice  Barres — The 
Jew  as  Patriot — Nationality,  again,  not  founded  on  Race 
but  on  Experience — To  what  Principle  of  Experience  is 
Nationality  to  be  assigned? 54 


CHAPTER  V 

If  Race  not  the  Basis  of  Nationality,  does  Nationality  itself 
disappear  ? — Nationality  founded  on  Community  of  interest 
— National  History  founded  on  Continuity  of  common 
Interest — The  Operation  of  this  Principle  illustrated  from 
contemporary  Writers — Sir  Mackenzie  Wallace  and  Russia — 
Mr.  J.  R.  Fisher  and  Finland — Dr.  Brandes  and  Poland — 
Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson  and  The  Evolution  of  States :  the 
"  Hallucination  "  of  Nationality — Nationality  not  an  Hallu- 
cination, but  a  living  Reality  founded  on  History  and 
Reason  ....  .  76 


CHAPTER    VI 

The  Progress  of  Civilization  dependent  upon  progressive  Com- 
plexity of  the  social  Tradition,  not  upon  progressive  Com- 
plexity of  hereditary  racial  Endowment — Mixture  of  Races 
means  Commingling  of  social  Traditions — The  earliest  Com- 
munities in  Britain — The  Commingling  of  Traditions  as 
shown  by  the  Study  of  Ethnology — The  Celts  a  highly 
composite  Peojple — The  Process  of  Commingling  of  Traditions 
continued  by  the  Roman  Occupation  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Invasion — Continuity  of  Tradition  from  prehistoric  to 
historical  Times  ........  92 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Environment  of  the  English  Nation — Elements  which  have 
combined  to  its  Formation — The  Anglo-Saxon  Invaders — The 
"Germans"  of  Tacitus — The  Reliability  of  his  Account; 
his  Subjectivity  less  evident  in  the  Oermania  than  else- 
where in  his  Writings — TTi«  Description  of  the  German  Land 
and  the  German  Peoples  in  the  Second  Century :  Their 
Characteristics  due  to  Environment,  not  to  Race :  trans- 

xvi 


CONTENTS 

i'\  -:\: 

mitted  by  Tradition,  not  by  Heredity — In  them  we  find  a 
Starting-point  of  the  English  National  Character — Future 
Developments  due  to  the  Commingling  of  Environments  .  102 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Poem  of  Beowulf — The  German  Tribes 
between  the  Second  and  Sixth  Centuries — Beowulf  a  Picture 
of  some  of  the  German  Tribes  about  the  End  of  that  Period 
— Origin  and  History  of  the  Beowulf  Saga — An  Account 
of  its  Story — Summary  of  the  Characteristics  it  exhibits  in 
its  People—Similarities  and  Differences  between  them  and 
their  Representatives  in  Tacitus — National  Character  and  a 
national  Ideal — Beowulf  essentially  English — The  Welding  of 
English  Nationality 117 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Growth  of  Anglo-Saxon  Nationality:  (1)  Political  Develop- 
ment ;  (2)  Social  Development — Political  :  Gradual  Union  of 
small  war  Bands  under  more  powerful  Princes;  Growth  of 
separate  Kingdoms;  Northumbria;  Mercia;  Wessex — The 
Danish  Invasion — The  Policy  of  Alfred — His  Army;  his  • 
Fleet ;  his  Aristocracy ;  his  nationalizing  Policy  towards  the 
Danes — Political  Union  at  the  Date  of  the  Norman  Conquest 
— Social :  The  Village  Community ;  its  Commingling  of 
different  racial  Elements;  the  Influences  affecting  its 
Development — The  Growth  of  national  and  of  local  Patriot- 
ism— The  Influence  of  the  Church;  of  foreign  Travel;  of' 
Commerce  and  the  Life  of  Towns — The  Norman  Conquest : 
the  Beginning  of  a  new  Process  of  Change  and  Amalgamation  134 


CHAPTER  X 

English  Nationality  and  the  Norman  Conquest — The  Results  of 
the  Conquest  not  due  to  the  Operation  of  "racial"  Factors, 
but  to  the  CommingUng  of  different  Traditions — The  Prin- 
ciple of  Centralization  and  the  Principle  of  Disruption  in  the 
Feudal  System  as  learnt  by  the  Normans  in  France — 
Triumph  of  the  Principle  of  Centralization  in  the  Consolida- 
tion of  (1)  Monarchy,  (2)  Law,  (3)  Parliament,  and  in  the 
Substitution  of  symbolic  Monarchy  for  personal  Monarchy — 
The  Principle  of  Nationality  victorious  over  the  Principle  of 
Cosmopolitanism  inherent  in  the  Papal  Conception  of  a 
universal  spiritual  Empire — Spread  of  British  Nationality  to 
Wales,  Scotland,  Ireland,  the  Colonies  and  the  Dependencies 
—The  British  Empire 159 

xvii 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  XI 

%  PAGE 

Social  and  economic  Aspects  of  the  Development  of  English 
Nationality  since  the  Conquest — The  Effects  of  Alien  Immi- 
gration on  (1)  the  Expansion  of  Trade  and  Commerce, 
(2)  the  Rise  and  Growth  of  Towns,  (3)  the  Substitution  of 
the  Cash-nexus  for  natural  Exchange—The  Breaking-up  of 
Feudalism  as  an  economic  Structure  in  the  Fourteenth  and 
Fifteenth  Centuries — Alien  Immigration  since  that  Period : 
its  Influence  upon  modern  commercial  and  political  Institu- 
tions— The  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  the 
Huguenot  Immigration — The  progressive  Amalgamation  of 
Aliens  with  the  native  Population :  their  Acceptance  of  the 
English  national  Tradition — The  Naturalization  of  Aliens — 
The  Necessity  for  systematic  Education  in  Patriotism  .  186 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  Principle  of  Commingling  of  Atmospheres  as  applied  to 
Literature — "  Race  "  in  Literature — Growth  of  national 
Literature — Anglo-Saxon  Literature  rather  a  Branch  of 
universal  Literature  than  national ;  the  national  Atmosphere 
dominated  by  the  cosmopolitan  Tradition  of  Rome — 
Chaucer :  his  Work  due  to  a  Commingling  of  Elements — 
Native  Influences  no  less  than  foreign  form  Part  of  his 
Environment — Nothing  in  Chaucer  can  be  explained  by  his 
"  Race  " — How  he  contributed  to  form  a  national  Litera- 
ture :  (1)  By  treating  of  Things  in  which  Englishmen  as  such 
were  interested,  (2)  By  treating  of  foreign  Things  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  them  interesting  to  the  English — National 
Literature  firmly  founded  by  Chaucer  ....  208 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Influence  of  the  Renascence  as  a  literary  Movement  in 
England — Its  three  main  Currents :  Classical,  Italian, 
Romantic — Spenser:  the  typical  Representative  of  the 
Elizabethan  Age  in  Literature — He  harmonizes  into  a  new 
national  Unity  the  domestic  Tradition  and  the  foreign 
Traditions  influencing  it — Spanish  Influence  on  English 
Literature — General  Indebtedness  of  our  national  Litera- 
ture to  foreign  Sources — Influence  of  Literature  in  extend- 
ing the  Spheres  of  the  common  Interests  of  Nations — The 
"  Literary  Confederation  of  Europe  "  .  .  .  .  224 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Nationality  and  the  War — Patriotism  as  Emotion  and  Intelli- 
gence; as  Passion  and  as  Thought — Its  intellectual  Aspect 
more  pronounced  with  the  Spread  of  Education,  and  with 
the   Progress   of  the   War — Nationality  after  the   War — 
xviii 


CONTENTS 

PAQE 

"  Remaking  the  Map  of  Europe  "  from  the  Point  of  View 
of  Nationality — Organic  Continuity  of  common  Interest 
the  necessary  Test  of  Nationality  in  post-war  Readjust- 
ments— The  Principle  of  Nationality  more  vital  after  the 
War  than  before  it — Nationality  as  the  Cause  of  War — The 
Views  of  the  Anti-National  Pacifists:  (1)  That  Nationality 
is  the  Cause  of  War,  (2)  That  Peace  can  be  secured  only  by 
the  Elimination  of  Nationality,  either  (a)  through  the  Rise 
of  a  World-Power,  or  (b)  by  the  Spread  of  Cosmopolitanism 
— These  Views  examined  and  refuted  ....  246 

CHAPTER  XV 

Nationality  as  the  Instrument  of  Peace;  Nationality  can  be 
deprived  of  its  dangerous  Elements  by  the  Operation  of 
the  same  Causes  as  those  which  produced  it — National 
Organization  for  Purposes  of  Peace—Cosmopolitan  Ideals 
invalid  without  national  Machinery  to  work  them — The 
Growth  of  international  Community  of  Interest  dependent 
upon  international  Action  to  secure  common  Ends — In 
History  Action  comes  first,  Theory  and  philosophical 
Justification  afterwards — Nationality  and  Militarism — Pre- 
war Signs  of  the  Operation  of  the  Principle  of  joint  Action 
in  the  international  Sphere :  The  "  Concert  of  Europe," 
"  European  Unity,"  the  "  Federation  of  Europe  " — The 
Demand  for  a  "  League  of  Nations  "  in  Relation  to  the 
slow  historical  Growth  of  a  Sense  of  common  Interest — 
The  Danger  of  hasty  and  revolutionary  Methods  :  Universal 
and  lasting  Peace  attainable  by  a  cautious  Application  of 
the  Lessons  of  History 274 


XIX 


CHAPTER  I 

General  Belief  in  the  Existence  of  national  Character :  No  equally 
general  Agreement  as  to  the  Character  of  any  particular  Nation — 
The  View  that  national  Character  is  unchangeable  from  Age  to 
Age — The  View  that  it  summarizes  the  separate  Characters  of  all 
the  individual  Persons  in  the  Nation — The  "  Soul  "  of  a  People  : 
the  Nation  as  "  Crowd  " — Latent  Elements  of  Character — Com- 
plexity of  the  Subject. 

WALKING  along  the  low-lying  northern  shore  of  the 
Solent  upon  the  eve  of  a  great  Naval  Review  the  writer 
was  joined  by  a  casual  stranger,  his  manner  indicating 
an  eagerness  to  express  the  feelings  inspired  in  him  by 
the  sight  of  the  hundred  ships-of-war  whose  grey  shapes 
at  that  moment  chequered  the  many-twinkling  smile  of 
Ocean  with  a  threatening  frown.  The  stranger  found 
many  aesthetic  and  other  charms  in  the  scene,  but  what 
chiefly  moved  his  rapture  was  the  relationship  he 
conceived  to  exist  between  the  assembled  fleet  and  the 
British  national  character.  "  Are  they  not  thoroughly  and 
typically  English  ?  "  he  exclaimed — "  a  sort  of  colossal 
4  John  Bull,  his  mark  '  ?  "  It  would  have  been  easy  .to 
score  the  cheap  sarcasm  of  inquiring  to  what  extent  the 
authenticity  of  the  national  signature  was  affected  by  the 
complimentary  presence  of  a  considerable  number  of 
men-of-war  of  various  nationalities  other  than  British. 
The  incident,  however,  is  recalled  because  it  illustrates 
the  popular  view  of  what  is  described  as  the  "  English 
National  Character."  This  is  generally  thought  to  be 
something  specific  and  well  defined,  something  that  is 
unmistakably  manifest  in  all  the  work  performed  by 
the  English  People,  so  that  when  you  use  the  words 
"  the  English  National  Character  "  you  employ  an  expres- 
sion with  an  almost  scientifically  precise  connotation, 
carrying  clear  and  well-established  ideas  into  the  mind  of 
the  hearer,  and  serving  to  mark  off  the  "  English  National 
Character  "  from  the  national  character  of  any  other 
B  1 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

people  under  the  sun.  No  matter  how  much  we  may  find 
individual  Englishmen  differing  from  eaeh  other  in  all 
the  constituent  elements  of  character;  no  matter  how 
much  we  may  find  individual  Frenchmen  or  Germans 
approaching,  nay,  excelling,  individual  Englishmen  in 
the  characteristics  traditionally  ascribed  to  the  English ; 
our  conception  of  the  distinct  national  character  of  our 
own  people  remains  undisturbed. 

The  principle,  moreover,  has  subtle  ramifications  and 
refinements  which  discriminate  between  the  general 
characters  of  different  sections  of  the  same  national 
aggregate.  The  Scot  has  his  "national"  character;  the 
Irishman  has  his ;  and  what  Englishman  is  deficient  in 
eloquence  to  describe  either  ? — an  eloquence  spurred  by 
the  knowledge  that  he,  too,  is  the  object  of  similar 
amiable  generalities  on  the  part  of  the  other  members 
of  the  British  group. 

Differences  of  still  narrower  local  reach  are  also  made 
the  basis  of  discriminating  generalizations.  Popular 
phraseology  surrounds  the  Yorkshireman,  the  East 
Anglian,  the  Devonian  and  the  Cockney  each  with  his 
own  separate  atmosphere  of  local  character,  and  there 
are  even  those  who  claim  to  distinguish  the  "  Man  of 
Kent  "  from  the  "  Kentish  Man."  And  not  only  do 
these  provincial  distinctions  fall  easily  under  the  broad 
generalization  which  assigns  to  the  Southron  character- 
istics described  as  typically  "  English,"  but  it  is  popularly 
felt  that  even  the  wider  differentiations  between  English- 
man, Scotsman,  and  Irishman  must,  if  only  for  very  polite- 
ness' sake,  be  included  in  the  all-embracing  conception  of 
the  "  English  National  Character,"  a  feeling  which  is 
evident  in  the  growing  use  of  the  term  "  British  "  where 
we  have  previously  been  content  with  "  English." 

The  fact  that  these  beliefs  are  popular  and  widespread 
is  no  reason  for  regarding  them  as  entirely  fallacious,  any 
more  than  the  fact  that  they  are  largely  corroborated  by 
scientists  and  philosophers  is  a  reason  for  accepting  them 
as  entirely  sound.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  we  cannot 
deny  that  anthropologists,  ethnologists,  sociologists,  and 
historians  of  both  the  picturesque  and  the  philosophical 
schools,  all  alike  recognize  differences  of  national  charac- 
ter as  giving  meaning  and  unity  to  national  history ;  as 

2 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  style  is  the  man,  so  the  character  is  the  nation. 
What  would  be  the  value  of  innumerable  books  like  Emer- 
son's English  Traits,  or  Taine's  History  of  English  Litera- 
ture, if  their  descriptions  of  our  national  character  could 
be  applied  with  equal  force  to  that  of  the  French  ?     How 
many  sarcasms  would  be  blunted  !   how  many  eulogies 
would  wither  !  if  they  could  be  passed  on  to  any  of  our 
national  neighbours  without  alteration,  as,  of  course, 
they  could  be  were  there  no  differences  of    national 
character  between  our  neighbours  and  ourselves.     The 
manifold  attempts  made  from  the  racial  point  of  view  to 
cast  light  upon  the  character  and  history  of  modern  com- 
munities by  anthropologists  in  measuring  Piltdown  and 
Galley  Hill  skulls  and  in  reconstructing  Neanderthal  and 
Engis    skeletons;     by    ethnologists   in    calculating   the 
intelligence  and  depicting  the  civilization  of  Neolithic 
men  from  the  nature  of  the  tools  they  have  left  behind 
them;    by  specializing  historians  who  have  devoted  a 
lifetime  of  research  to  the  study  of  national  origins — all 
these  and  the  thousands  of  volumes  in  which  they  are 
recorded  would  form  a  most  melancholy  monument  of 
human  ignorance  and  ineptitude  were  there  no  founda- 
tion for  the  present  popular  and  scientific  belief  in  the 
existence   of   differences   of   national   character.     How 
many  happy  generalizations  would  prove  meaningless  ! 
how  many  scientific  conclusions  baseless  !    how  many 
historical  narratives  pointless  !      Were  there  no   such 
thing  as  national  character  it  would  be  necessary  to 
revise  all  our  conceptions  of  human  development,  to 
rewrite  all  our  histories  of   human  progress  !     Just  as 
an  experience  undergone  by  an  individual  person  unfolds 
its  most  important  meaning  when  regarded  as  an  indica- 
tion of  the  character  of  which  it  is  the  outcome,  and  of 
the   relationship   in   which   that    character   stands   to 
the  other   characters   operating   in   the   same    sphere, 
just  so  a  national  event  is  endowed  with  its  richest 
significance  when  it  is  looked  upon  as  interpreting  those 
special  forces  which  are  described,  alike  in  popular  and 
in  scientific  diction,  as  constituting  national  character. 

The  almost  universal  claim  that  national  character  is 
a  real  and  ineluctable  fact  has  not,  however,  resulted  in 
any  equally  general  recognition  of  the  ultimate  nature 

3 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

of  the  difference  in  any  given  set  of  comparable  instances, 
nor  even  in  any  agreement  as  to  the  broad  lines  in  which 
the  difference  should  be  stated.  The  primeval  prejudice 
against  the  stranger,  rooted  as  it  is  in  a  fixed,  inarguable 
conviction  that  the  native  is  the  superior  creation,  is 
still  the  chief  obstacle,  existing  both  in  the  popular  and 
in  the  scientific  mind,  to  an  impartial  consideration  of 
the  question.  This  drives  us  into  those  comparisons 
which  are  none  the  less  odious  for  being  erroneous  in 
theory  and  dangerous  in  practice,  and  for  encouraging 
those  false  conceptions  which  issue  in  acts  of  inter- 
national hostility.  Even  in  minds  less  liable  to  prejud- 
ice than  the  majority,  we  often  find  the  scientific  form 
of  an  opinion  to  be  merely  a  stately  mantle  for  the  old 
historic  hatreds.  It  is  a  remarkable  and  intensely 
melancholy  fact  that  the  national  animosity  of  the  French 
and  the  Germans  is  reflected  in  the  conclusions  respect- 
ively arrived  at  by  French  and  German  scientists  as  to 
the  ethnological  value  of  the  skeletons  of  prehistoric 
European  man.  The  chief  interest  (we  are  told)  that 
attaches  to  the  Engis  skull  of  the  repulsive  "  Canstadt  " 
type,  is  that  French  anthropologists  consider  the  savages 
to  whom  th'ey  belonged  "to  be  the  direct  ancestors  of 
their  hereditary  enemies  the  Germans,  while  German 
anthropologists  assert  that  the  Teutons  are  the  only 
lineal  descendants  of  the  noble  Aryan  race."  1  Mr.  Grant 
Allen,  to  take  another  example,  says  that  "  the  Teutonic 
blood  differentiates  our  somewhat  slow  and  steady 
character  from  the  more  logical,  but  volatile  and  unstable 
Gaul,  the  Celtic  blood  differentiates  it  from  the  far-slower, 
heavier,  and  less  quick  or  less  imaginative  Teutons  of 
Germany  or  Scandinavia."  2  Leaving  aside,  for  the 
present,  the  question  of  blood  or  race  as  affecting  charac- 
ter, let  us  ask  whether  these  various  epithets,  as  applied 
in  this  comparative  way  to  Celt  and  Teuton,  to  Gaul 
and  Anglo-Saxon,  express  scientific  realities,  or  are  merely 
shapes  of  national  vanity  masquerading  as  science.  Will 
the  Gaul  admit  t>ur  general  charge  of  volatility  and 

1  The  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  by  Isaac  Taylor  (Walter  Scott :    "  Con- 
temporary Science  "  Series),  p.  107. 

2  Anglo-Saxon  Britain,    by  Grant    Allen,   B.A.    (S.P.C.K.,    1884), 
p.  229. 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

instability  with  the  same  readiness  as  he  admits  the  law 
of  gravity  or  the  rotundity  of  the  earth's  surface  ?  Even 
if  he  admits  it,  will  he  admit  it  as  discriminating  between 
ourselves  and  his  own  compatriots  ?  Are  not  volatility 
and  instability  essential  elements  in  that  quality  of 
"  perfidy  "  which  he  has  so  often  hissed  at  us  from  across 
the  Straits  of  Dover?  Did  not  Immanuel  Kant  say 
that  we  English  were  a  people  of  whim,  long  before  Mr. 
G.  B.  Shaw  transferred  that  particular  cap  from  the  head 
of  the  typical  Irishman  to  that  of  the  typical  English- 
man ?  Did  not  Milton  himself  suggest  that  the  ''''fickle- 
ness which  is  attributed  to  us  "  might  be  corrected  by 
"  good  education  and  acquisite  wisdom  "  ?  *  And  the 
German  in  general,  Prussian  or  Saxon,  Bavarian  or 
Austrian,  will  he  agree  that  he  is  less  quick  and  less 
imaginative  than  we  are?  It  is  a  perpetual  source  of 
patriotic  wonder  to  the  intelligent  German  that  so  dull 
and  unimaginative  a  race  as  he  thinks  we  are  ever 
produced  a  Shakespeare,  whom  he  claims,  through  the 
mouth  of  Goethe  and  others,  to  appreciate  better  than  we 
do  ourselves,'  mingling  some  earnest  in  the  jest  with 
which  he  appropriates  our  great  poet  as  "  unser  Shake- 
speare." 2  And  what  are  we  to  say  of  Grant  Allen's 
indiscriminate  confounding,  in  one  contemptuous  general- 
ization, of  the  Teutons  of  Germany  with  those  of  Scandi- 
navia? The  Danes  might  possibly  admit  the  charge 
as  regards  Swedes  and  Norwegians,  just  as  Norwegians 
might  admit  it  as  regards  Swedes  and  Danes,  or  Swedes 
as  regards  Danes  and  Norwegians;  so  general  are  these 
patriotic  comparisons  between  nation  and  nation. 
But  the  Norwegian  himself,  when  speaking  through  the 
detached  personality  of  an  American  University  pro- 
fessor, discerns  such  marked  differences  of  national 
character  between  the  peoples  of  Sweden  and  Norway 

1  Milton,  "  A  Free  Commonwealth,"  Prose  of  Milton,  p.  144  (Scott 
Library). 

2  Goethe,  Wahrhe.it  und  DicJitung,  Book  XI.     "  Shakespeare  ist  von 
den  Deutschen  mehr,  als  von  alien  anderen  Nationen,  ja  vielleicht  mehr,  '• 
als  von  seiner  eigenen,  erkannt."     Cf.   Grillparzer's   quotation  from 
Gervinus'  History  of  German  Poetical  Literature  and  his  emphatic  com- 
ment thereon.     "  Haben  ja  die  Englander  selbst,  ihrem  Shakespeare 
sein  voiles  Recht  zu  thun,  uns  iiberlassen."     "  Du  lieber  Himmel !  " 
says  Grillparzer  (Cotta  edition,  Vol.  XVIII.  p.  24). 

5 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

as  to  render  their  political  union  an  impossibility — a 
statement  made  some  years  before  the  political  separa- 
tion of  the  two  countries  in  1906.     The  same  writer  can 
also  discriminate  the  Danes  from  the  two  other  Scandian 
peoples,  notwithstanding  their  sharing  in  the  compre- 
hensive dulness  of  the  Teuton  blood — "  There  is  some- 
thing soft  and  emotional  in  the  character  of  the  Danes 
which   distinguishes  them  from  their  Norwegian   and 
Swedish  kinsmen,  an  easily  flowing  lyrical  vein  which 
imparts  a  winning  warmth  and  cordiality  to  their  de- 
meanour." 1     And  as  for  the  transformations  effected 
upon  the  original  furor  Teutonicus  by  its  imprisonment 
in  the  narrow  Norwegian  valleys,  several  writers  have 
made  them  the  theme  of  interesting  and  not  entirely 
useless  studies.2    The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  that  Gaul 
and  Briton,  Teuton  and  Scandinavian,  Celt  and  Saxon 
alike  maintain  the  existence  of  specific  differences  of 
national  character,  while  each  equally  denying  the  truth 
of   the   estimates   which   his   neighbours   have   formed 
of  his  own,  and  each  alike  forming  his  own  estimates  of 
the  characters  of  his  different  neighbours. 

It  is  a  consoling  reflection,  however,  that  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  any  phenomenon  do  not 
annihilate  the  phenomenon  itself,  serving  rather  to 
corroborate  the  belief  in  its  existence,  as  being  based  upon 
observations  made  from  many  independent  points  of 
view.  And  even  if  it  should  prove,  after  patient  and 
thorough  investigation,  that  the  phenomenon  only  exists 
as  a  general  hallucination,  as  happened  in  the  case  of 
witchcraft,  a  knowledge  of  the  reasons  upon  which  the 
error  is  founded  will  probably  be  as  fruitful  in  practical 
results,  if  only  of  confession  and  avoidance,  as  if  an  actual 
fact  had  been  compelled  to  surrender  its  secret.  The 
assumption,  therefore,  that  the  general  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  national  character  is  not  without  foundation  in 
reality,  may  usefully  be  made  the  starting-point  of  an 

1  Essays  on  Scandinavian  Literature,  by  Hjalmar  Hjorth  Boyesen 
(London  :   David  Nutt,  1895). 

2  E.g.  see  Germanic  Origins :  a  Study  in  Primitive  Culture,  by  Francis 
B.  Gummere,  PH.D.  (London  :   David  Nutt,   1892).     "  Whenever  we 
wish  to  see  any  Germanic  trait  in  its  most  exaggerated  form  we  look  to 
Scandinavia." 

6 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

investigation  into  the  meaning  and  implications  of  the 
phrase.  And  if  the  progress  of  the  search  demonstrates  the 
falsity  of  the  initial  assumption,  the  inquirer  will  have  the 
satisfaction  of  exposing  an  error,  if  not  of  establishing  a 
truth. 

Assuming,  therefore,  the  provisional  validity  of  the 
prevalent  generalization,  let  us  next  endeavour  to  ascer- 
tain what  it  means  when  applied  to  the  particular  case 
of  the  English  national  character,  an  example  whose 
choice  needs  no  apology  in  an  Englishman.  Perhaps 
we  may  be  allowed  to  hope  that  an  inquiry  into  what  the 
expression  means  will  enable  us,  by  the  way,  to  ascertain 
what  it  ought  to  mean. 

Among  Englishmen,  then,  there  is  prevalent  an  impres- 
sion that  what  Grant  Allen  and  others  have  called  the 
"  Anglo-Saxon  Character  "  has  been  a  consistent  and 
homogeneous  phenomenon  all  through  the  recorded 
history  of  the  English  People;  that  what  is  known  as 
the  original  "  Anglo-Saxon  Stock,"  although  it  may  have 
encountered  the  shock  or  seduction  of  various  foreign 
influences  during  its  occupation  of  the  British  Islands, 
has  yet  been  able  to  mould  all  these  to  its  own  native 
purposes,  has  assimilated  them  all  to  its  own  structure, 
and  nas  arisen  triumphantly  supreme  over  them  all  in 
the  conservation  of  its  own  primeval  qualities.  Even 
the  great  irruption  of  the  Norman  elements  is  regarded  as 
having  had  little  effect  upon  the  solid  English  material 
which  had  found  an  immovable  habitation  here  before 
that  insolent  usurpation  took  place.  In  Russell  Lowell's 
intimate  phrase,  it  was  but  the  working  of  "the  Norman 
yeast  upon  the  home-baked  Saxon  loaf,"  bringing  no 
fundamental  transformation  of  material,  but  only  adding 
a  little  in  the  way  of  ornamental  delicacy  and  jniceness.1 
And  this  view  dominates  the  writers  of  English  History 
with  an  almost  exclusive  prepossession.  Everywhere 
is  exhibited  the  tendency  to  assert  that,  through  all  the 
changes  and  the  chances  of  our  national  career,  a  certain 
well-denned  type  of  character,  which  showed  itself  at 
the  very  outset,  has  been  transmitted  by  blood,  and  has 
remained  practically  unaltered  from  the  time  of  Beowulf 

1  See  Lowell's  Essay  on  "  Chaucer,"  in  My  Study  Windoivs  (Camelot 
Classics,  1886),  p.  227. 

7 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

to  the  time  of  Browning,  from  Alfred  the  Great  to 
Mr.  Lloyd  George.1 

And  this  generalization  of  the  historians,  which  does 
not  pretend  to  have  been  obtained  as  the  result  of  any 
scientific  inquiry  into  causes,  but  to  be  merely  a  state- 
ment of  broad  social  and  political  phenomena,  appears 
to  receive  corroboration  from  the  more  recent  specialists 
in  the  study  of  racial  tendencies.  We  reserve  for  a 
later  chapter  some  discussion  of  the  more  important 
results  of  such  study.  At  present  we  merely  mention 
a  few  representative  scientific  or  philosophic  thinkers 
who  can  be  quoted  in  apparent  support  of  the  picturesque 
descriptions  of  English  historians  and  novelists.  M. 
Gustave  Le  Bon,  for  example,  expressly  maintains  that 
every  nation  possesses  a  character  which  was  fixed  for 
it  at  some  undated  period,  which  undergoes  no  funda- 
mental change ,  from  generation  to  generation,  and 
which  is  called  by  a  theological  analogy  the  "  soul  of  the 
people."  To  quote  M.  Le  Bon  :  this  soul  "  possesses 
fundamental  characteristics  as  immutable  as  the  ana- 
tomical characteristics  of  an  animal  species." — "  In 
all  the  manifestations  of  the  life  of  a  people  we  always 
find  the  unchangeable  soul  of  the  race  weaving  itself 
its  own  destiny."  2 

A  variation  of  this  view  is  current  in  Germany,  where  it 
has  received  philosophical  form  in  the  writings  of  the 
jurist  von  Ihering,  whose  brilliant  work  on  the  Evolu- 
tion of  the  Aryan  is  unfortunately  only  a  fragment.3 
His  position  is  summed  up  in  the  pregnant  phrase,  "  the 
soil  is  the  nation,"  by  which  he  means  that  the  national 
characters  of  the  various  historical  peoples  were  origi- 
nally the  product  of  their  geographical  environment.  He 
goes  on  to  maintain,  however,  that  the  first  formation 
of  national  character  under  the  influence  of  the  environ- 
ment is  final,  decisive,  and  unchangeable,  being  hence- 

1  Morley,  English  Writers.     Intrbduction  :  "In  the  Literature  of  any 
people  we  perceive  under  all  contrasts  of  form  produced  by  variable 
social  influences  the  one  national  character  from  first  to  last." 

2  The  Psychology  of  Peoples,  by  Gustave  Le  Bon  (London  :  T.  Fisher 
Unwin,  1899),  see  pp.  19  and  130. 

8  The  Evolution  of  the  Aryan,  by  Rudolph  von  Ihering.  Translated 
from  the  German  by  A.  Drucker,  M.P.  (London  :  Swan  Sonnenschein  & 
Co.,  1897). 

8 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

forward  transmitted  by  heredity.  As  he  asserts  that 
the  description  which  Tacitus  gives  of  the  Germans  holds 
good  in  its  essential  points  for  all  their  "  descendants," 
he  could  clearly  be  quoted  in  support  of  the  view  that  the 
Anglo-Saxon  character  was  decisively  formed  before  the 
Teutonic  invasion  of  England,  and  has  been  transmitted 
from  those  early  times,  fundamentally  unaltered,  to  the 
present  inhabitants  of  these  Islands.  And  lastly,  for  the 
present,  we  have  Mr.  Cyril  Burt,  the  extremely  able 
lecturer  in  Experimental  Psychology  in  the  University  of 
Liverpool,  arguing  with  great  cogency  and  clearness 
that,  although  "  environment  may  explain  the  difference 
in  different  societies  of  the  traditional  mental  contents, 
heredity  remains  indispensable  .to  explain  the  differences 
in  mental  capacities." — "  These  differences,"  he  adds, 
"are  the  more  fundamental.  Mental  inheritance .  .  . 
rules  the  destiny  of  nations."  x 

It  would,  of  course,  demanol  the  most  patient  and 
prolonged  analysis  of  the  various  stages  of  our  national 
development,  as  unrolled  upon  the  pages  of  history,  to 
ascertain  whether  the  qualities  which  marked  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  "  Race  "  on  its  earliest  appearance  have  undergone 
any  radical  transformation  throughout  the  course  of 
subsequent  ages.  But  one  thing  even  a  cursory,  if  Care- 
ful, glance  makes  clear  :  and  this  is,  that  if  national 
character  is  what  it  is  understood  to  be  in  the  popular 
sense  of  the  term,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  very  striking 
changes  have  from  time  to  time  been  manifested  in  the 
forms  of  its  expression.  The  national  character  in  the 
popular  sense  is  generally  found  to  be  merely  a  rough 
symbol  for  certain  special  characteristics  which  have 
come  to  the  front  at  particular  times  and  seasons.  Dur- 
ing the  political  sway  of  Puritanism,  for  example,  certain 
particular  features  played  a  dominating  part  in  the 
social  and  general  movements  of  the  day,  and  stamped 
the  so-called  "  national  character  "  of  that  epoch.  But 
the  "  national  character  "  was  different  in  the  age  of 
Cromwell  from  what  it  was  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  : 
from  both  these  it  differed  in  the  Restoration  Age  : 
and  where  are  the  common  factors  of  the  "  national 

1  "The  Inheritance  of  Mental  Characters,"  by  Cyril  Burt,  M.A. 
Eugenics  Review,  July  1912. 

9 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

character  "  in  the  age  of  Anne  and  the  age  of  George  the 
Fifth? 

"  Qui  dabat  olim 

Imperium,  fasces,  legiones,  omnia,  nune  se 
Continet,  atque  duas  tantum  res  anxius  optat, 
Panem  et  Circcnses." 1 

What  modern  Englishman  of  average  taste  and  morals 
would  find  himself  at  home  under  the  first  two  Georges 
as  that  age  is  depicted,  for  example,  by  Thackeray? 
The  fact  is  that  national  character,  in  the  popular  accep- 
tation of  the  term,  has  undergone  great  modifications 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  generalize  all  these  changes  and  sum  them  up  in  one 
phrase  as  the  historical  national  character  of  Englishmen. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  the  English  had  the  European 
reputation  of  being  lazy.  The  severest  critic  of  British 
faults  hardly  includes  lack  of  energy  among  them  to-day. 
Where  is  now  the  "  whim,"  the  "  capricious  originality," 
with  which  Kant  endowed  us  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century?  "The  reputation,"  says  Mr.  C.  H.  Pearson, 
"  which  the  Englishman  of  Great  Britain  enjoyed  has 
now  been  in  great  measure  transferred  to  the  Anglo- 
American.  The  original  race  has  grown  '  bulbous, 
heavy-witted,  material,'  as  Hawthorne  cynically  puts 
it ;  is.  careful  of  its  bank-balance  and  of  the  proprieties ; 
is  weighted  with  an  ever-present  sense  of  responsibilities." 
And,  again  quotes  Mr.  Pearson  :  "  '  The  English,'  says 
Holberg,  '  as  soon  as  they  hear  of  anything  they  are  not 
familiar  with,  take  rjpld  of  it  at  once,  examine  it,  accept 
it,  and  teach  it  publicly.'  "  2  This  accessibility  to  new 
ideas  has  not  been  a  constant  element  of  our  national 
character. 

Some  students  there  are  who  maintain  that  these 
changes  in  the  national  character  are  actually  marked 
by  a  corresponding  change  in  the  "  national  "  face.  The 
anonymous  author  of  a  little  book  on  Character  in  the 
Face  has  some  suggestive  remarks  on  this  subject.3 

1  Juvenal,  X.  79-81. — This  ia  a  pre-war  quotation;  but  the  contrast 
is  always  repeating  itself. 

2  National  Life  and  Character,  a  Forecast,  by  Charles  H.  Pearson 
(Macmillan  &  Co.,  1894),  pp.  104-6. 

8  Character  in  the  Face :  Our  Looks  and  What  They  Mean  (Chapman  & 
Hall,  1893). 

10 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

"  The  average  Elizabethan  head  of  poets,  philosophers, 
and  statesmen  is  oval,  well-made,  and  with  a  wide,  well- 
shaped  forehead.     But  after  the  Revolution  of  1688  the 
national  head  will  be  found  to  deteriorate.     It  begins 
to  get  round,  fleshy,  and  the  jaws  enlarge  as  in  the  lower 
types  of  humanity.     And  in  the  sensual  times  of  the 
Georges  the  English   '  national '  head  has   been   thus 
described  :    '  The  shape  of  the  head  was  an  irregular 
round,  larger  at  the  bottom  than  at  the  top;   the  brow 
thick,  low,  and  sloping  backward ;   the  nose,  coarse  and 
long;    the  mouth  fleshy,   lax,  ponderous,   and  earthy. 
When  the  countenance  was  not  of  this  description  it  was 
poor,  mean,  and  sharp.'     A  really  fine  head  was  scarcely 
to  be  met  with,  a  physiognomical  degeneration  continu- 
ing till  after  the  French  Revolution.     At  present  the 
head  is  looked  upon  as  reverting  to  the  higher  Eliza- 
bethan type."     Craniology,  of  course,  from  its  point  of 
view,  fixes  an  adamantine  bar  against  the  possibility  of 
such  rapid  racial  changes  of  occipital  structure  as  are 
here  recounted;    while  the  superficial  signs  of    coarse 
living  or  high  thinking,  as  evident  in  the  mouth  or  nose  or 
cheeks  of  the  subject,  point  to  the  long  result  of  individual 
habits  and  not  to  racial  qualities.     But  the  writer  well 
illustrates  the  view  that  different  intellectual  and  moral 
traits  have  been  nationally  prominent  at  different  periods 
of  our  national  history. 

The  fact  appears  to  be  that  the  impression  which 
historians  give  of  our  national  character  at  any  particular 
epoch  is  not  a  complete  impression  even  for  that  epoch ; 
a  statement  which  may  be  made  without  suggesting  that 
a  complete  impression  is  easy,  or  even  possible.  The 
qualities  which  have  been  taken  into  account  in  arriving 
at  the  generalized  national  character,  even  when  the 
writer  is  not  merely  repeating  a  shibboleth  or  worshipping 
a  fetish,  have  commonly  been  those  which  the  course  of 
social  or  political  events  has  brought  prominently  upon 
the  historical  stage.  It  is  impossible,  for  example,  to 
believe  that  the  "national  character"  of  Englishmen 
under  the  Puritan  regime  covered  the  whole  of  the 
nation.  Real  goodness — and  who  would  deny  real,  if 
illiberal,  goodness  to  the  average  Puritan? — does  not 
become  vice  when  the  external  conditions  make  it  easier 

11 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

to  be  vicious  than  to  be  virtuous.  The  licentiousness  of 
the  Restoration  was  inherent  in  a  part  of  the  nation 
even  under  the  Puritans,  and  wag  only  awaiting  a  favour- 
able social  regime  to  show  itself  openly.  The  "  Nazarene 
abstinence  "  of  the  Puritan  was  not  eliminated  from 
the  national  character  when  Charles  and  his  Court 
returned  to  give  the  dominant  note  to  English  society, 
any  more  than  the  English  language  at  the  same  period 
ceased  to  be  capable  of  dignity  and  splendour  because 
Dryden  made  it  capable  of  lucidity  and  precision.  The 
goodness  and  the  piety  were  hiding  in  shy  seclusion  in 
quiet  families  at  Chalfont  and  in  the  City  of  London ; 
but  the  historian  has  fixed  his  impression  of  the  tem- 
porary national  character  by  the  orgies  of  Chelsea  and 
Whitehall,  just  as  for  the  previous  period  he  has  fixed  it 
by  the  prayer  meetings  at  Windsor  Castle  and  the  filling 
of  State  papers  with  texts  from  the  Old  Testament. 

Similarly,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  the 
qualities  combined  in  the  popular  estimate  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan Englishman  were  qualities  exhibited  by  a  limited 
number  of  distinguished  people  whose  birth,  or  social 
standing,  or  possession  of  purely  individual  characteris- 
tics, enabled  them  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  great 
events  of  their  epoch,  and  to  stamp  their  own  qualities 
upon  its  record.  The  qualities  displayed  by  the  common 
million,  which  are  left  out  of  consideration  because  they 
have  not  lent  themselves  to  picturesque  illumination 
— carent  quia  vote  sacro — should  be  brought  into  proper 
relief  as  elements  of  the  national  character,  if  it  be 
true  that  all  the  separate  members  of  the 'community 
participate  in  its  national  character. 

If,  therefore,  we  were  to  combine  into  one  broad 
generalization  all  the  descriptions  given  by  historians 
of  the  character  exhibited  by  the  nation  at  successive 
periods  of  its  development,  we  should  be  far  from  obtain- 
ing that  correct  view  of  national  character  which  seems 
promised  by  the  common  use  of  the  term,  and  in  doing 
so  we  should,  at  any  rate,  have  to  jettison  the  popular 
historical  notion  that  the  character  of  our  people  has 
remained  unchanged  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest  day. 
The  temporary  "  national  characters "  which  have 
successively  shown  themselves  upon  the  stage  of  history 

12 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

prove  each  of  them  to  be  simply  a  rough  generalization, 
or  perhaps  even  only  an  enumeration,  of  the  characteris- 
tics prominently  exhibited  by  prominent  personages  at 
particular  periods  of  our  history.  Whether  or  not  these 
characteristics  of  individual  personages  have  a  represen- 
tative or  symbolic  value  is  a  matter  for  subsequent 
inquiry.1  At  present  we  merely  note  that  national  charac- 
teristics have  been  so  very  different  at  different  periods 
that  it  is  impossible  to 'sum  up  all  the  variations  in  one 
comprehensive  phrase.  How  can  we  find  a  common 
expression  for  the  empurpled  splendour  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan age  and  the  plebeian  smugness  of  the  mid- Vic- 
torian epoch  ?  for  the  conventicular  primness  of  the 
Cromwellian  Puritan  and  the  brothel-haunting  lubricity 
of  the  Restoration  courtier  ?  for  the  urbanity  and  spiritual 
refinement  which,  in  some  eyes,  marked  the  England  of 
the  fifteenth  century  and  the  "  restless  industry  and 
practical  talent  "  of  the  century  of  manufactures  ?  2 
How  embrace  in  one  single  descriptive  expression  self- 
denial  and  selfishness,  asceticism  and  luxury,  bravery  and 
cowardice,  loyalty  and  treason  ?  If  one  could  find  such 
an  expression  it  would  have  less  distinctiveness  than  the 
term  "  cloth  "  applied  alike  to  cloth-of-gold,  purple  a*nd 
fine  linen,  fustian  and  shoddy. 

Nor  is  the  difficulty  much  lessened  when,  dropping  the 
attempt  to  imprison  in  a  phrase  the  Lucretian  torch 
race  of  the  generations  of  our  history,  we  confine  our 
efforts  to  answering  the  question,  whether  our  people  in 
any  one  generation  have  displayed  a  common  character 
which  can  be  tersely  hit  off  in  a  general  phrase.  Here, 
too,  we  find  ourselves  equally  unable  to  deal  with  the 
matter  from  a  scientific  standpoint.  If  it  be  true,  as 
the  popular  idea  maintains,  that  national  character  is  a 
generalization  of  all  the  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
qualities  of  thje  various  individual  persons  composing 
the  community,3  how  can  we  accurately  phrase  a  general- 

1  See  Chapters  XII.  and  XIII.  (Chaucer  and  Spenser). 

2  Seeley,  Expansion  of  England,  p.  85  (1883). 

3  "The  British  Character  is,  so  to  speak,  the  generalized  manifesta- 
tion of  the  characters  of  the  English,  Scottish  and  Welsh  peoples,  and, 
descending  the  scale,  of  the  characters  of  the  inhabitants  of  every 
district,  and  finally  of  every  man." — Dr.  Rice  Holmes :  Ancieni  Britain, 
p.  457. 

13 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

ization  involving  a  consideration  of  particulars  so  numer- 
ous and  so  variable  ?  A  scientifically  exact  terminology 
is  the  first  necessity  for  propounding  an  accurate  scientific 
theory,  and  who  shall  provide  a  language  at  once  so 
copious,  delicate  and  subtle  as  to  suggest  fully  all  the 
different  qualities  shown  by  all  the  separate  members  of 
the  community,  and  all  the  different  shades  and  gradations 
of  the  same  quality  as  differently  exhibited  by  those  who 
possess  it  ?  Plato  has  given  us  to  know  that  no  man's 
courage  is  the  same  as  any  other  man's  courage,1  if  we  were 
not  aware  that  even  in  the  less  subtly  delicate  sphere 
of  physical  qualities  Nature  never  exactly  copies  her  own 
handiwork.  If  we  could  assert  that  every  member  of  a 
community  possessed  courage,  would  it  convey  an  exact 
scientific  verity  to  say  that  the  communal  character  was 
marked  by  courage  ?  It  is  almost  a  truism  to  say  that 
an  assemblage  of  people  often  displays  qualities  different 
from  those  that  mark  its  individual  members.  But 
history  has  left  us  no  record  of  a  community  of  which  all 
the  members  were  courageous — those  communities  most 
famous  for  their  courage  having  promulgated  the  severest 
penalties  against  the  coward ;  and  iti  would  be  a  matter 
for  the  most  critical  calculation  to  decide  how  far  the 
cowardice  of  the  cowards  acts  as  a  diminution  of  the 
general  character  for  courage,  and  many  fine  and  delicate 
deductions  would  have  to  be  made  before  we  could  find, 
if  ever  we  could  find,  a  scientifically  phrased  generaliza- 
tion to  express  the  final  result.  The  question,  moreover, 
is  not  one  of  a  single  quality  merely,  but  of  many  different 
qualities  exhibiting  themselves  differently  in  some 
millions  of  people,  and  any  statement  of  the  character 
of  these  people  in  their  national  aspect  cannot  pretend 
to  anything  like  scientific  accuracy.  These  considera- 
tions would  appear  to  suggest  that  any  claim  to  scientific 
certitude  on  this  infinitely  complicated  subject  must  be 
scrutinized  with  even  more  suspicion  than  the  manifestly 
haphazard  guesses  of  the  multitude. 

Further,  even  if  we  were  able  to  summarize  the  differ- 
ent characters  of  a  few  millions  of  individuals  into  a 
single  ^descriptive  phrase,  it  would  by  no  means  follow 
that  we  had  expressed  their  character  as  a  community. 
1  Plato  :    Laches. 
14 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Without  following  M.  Gustave  Le  Bon  into  all  his  fan- 
tastic lucubrations  on  the  Crowd,  we  can  agree  with  him, 
and  with  the  many  writers  who  have  previously  made 
the  same  remark,  that  when  a  crowd  of  persons  acts  as  a 
crowd  it  exhibits  characteristics  alien  from  those  ever 
exhibited  by  the  separate  items  composing  it.1  The 
character  of  a  crowd  is  not  a  generalization  of  the 
characters  of  its  component  units;  and  he  who  would 
foretell  the  behaviour  of  even  a  small  group  of  persons 
from  his  knowledge  of-  the  individual  characters  of  its 
members  would  probably  find  himself  discredited  as  a 
prophet  after  the  first  attempt.  And  yet  it  seems  not 
unlikely  that  a  crowd  has  a  character  of  its  own,  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  which  would  find  its  forecasts  of 
the  crowd's  action  justified  by  the  event.  This  con- 
sideration casts  suspicion  upon  the  lucubrations  of  the 
"  Leviathan  "  school  of  social  philosophy,  who  looked 
upon  the  community  as  a  sort  of  gigantic  man,  and 
drew  elaborate  pseudo -scientific  parallels  between  the 
various  functions  of  the  social  organism  and  the  physical 
and  mental  structure  of  the  individual  human  being. 
This  reflection  also  suggests  that  as  a  crowd  may  be  a 
phenomenon  sui  generis,  having  its  own  laws,  and 
exhibiting  its  activities  in  a  manner  which  cannot  be 
calculated  except  by  a  special  study  of  these  laws,  so  it  is 
possible  that  we  may  find  a  hint  towards  the  true  meaning 
of  "  national  character  "  in  regarding  that  larger  crowd, 
the  community  or  the  nation,  as  a  phenomenon  sui 
generis,  exhibiting  its  activities  in  a  manner  peculiar  to 
itself,  and  totally  dissimilar  from  the  manner  in  which 
any  individual  member  of  the  community  or  nation 
exhibits  his  or  her  activities.  This,  however,  is  a  subject 
for  investigation  when  the  difficulties  of  the  general 
question  have  been  sufficiently  explored. 

Meanwhile,  there  is  another  preliminary  difficulty 
which  forces  itself  upon  the  attention  of  those  who  would 
inquire  into  the  phenomena  of  national  character :  a  diffi- 
culty associated  with  the  not  uncommon  use  of  the  word 
"  character  "  to  imply  less  what  a  man  does  than  what 
he  is,  to  indicate  those  latent  uniformities  of  his  nature 

1  The  Crowd,  a  Study  of   the   Popular  Mind,  by  Gustave  Le  Bon 
(London  :  T.  Fisher  Unwin). 

15 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

which  give  harmony  to  his  most  divergent  actions, 
welding  truth  and  falsehood,  bravery  and  cowardice, 
rashness  and  prudence  into  one  coherent  whole;  and 
often  not  requiring  the  test  of  action  before  it  makes  its 
existence  known  to  the  observer.  This  conception  of 
character  is  part  of  our  common  intellectual  possession 
to-day  mainly  owing  to  the  influence  of  Emerson,  into 
the  very  web  of  whose  philosophy  it  is  inextricably 
woven.  "  O  lole  !  "  he  quotes,  "  how  did  you  know 
that  Hercules  was  a  god  ?  "  — "  Because  I  was  content  the 
moment  my  eyes  fell  on  him.  When  I  beheld  Theseus, 
I  desired  that  I  might  see  him  offer  battle,  or  at 
least  guide  his  horses  in  the  chariot  race ;  but  Hercules 
did  not  wait  for  a  contest;  he  conquered  whether  he 
stood,  or  walked,  or  sat,  or  whatever  thing  he  did."  x  In 
Chatham  "  there  was  something  finer  than  anything 
which  he  said."  The  facts  about  Mirabeau  "  do  not 
justify  Carlyle's  estimate  of  his  genius,"  but  Emerson 
accepts  that  estimate  in  spite  of  the  "  facts."  Plutarch's 
heroes  "  do  not  in  the  record  of  facts  equal  their  fame  "  : 
the  facts  are  an  insignificant  indication  of  the  latent 
splendours  of  whose  existence  we  are,  nevertheless,  con- 
vinced beyond  question.  Nor  is  it  only  the  great  and 
eminent  personages  of  the  world's  history  who  have 
possessed  this  quality.  We  all  know  men  in  our  daily 
lives  of  business  or  pleasure  who  are  greater  than  any- 
thing the  masters  of  this  world  can  find  for  them  to  do ; 
who  are  silent  reservoirs  of  force  and  energy;  whom 
instinctively  we  feel  we  could  trust  to  guide  us  in  any 
emergency  requiring  real  leadership,  and  not  merely 
the  specious  machinations  of  the  interested  schemer; 
who  need  none  of  the  quotidianal  rewards  or  cheap 
"  honours  "  of  life  to  vindicate  the  estimate  we  form  of 
them.  Galton,  in  a  well-known  passage,  says  of  the 
individual  human  being  that  "  there  is  in  him  a  vastly 
larger  number  of  capabilities  than  ever  find  expression, 
and  for  every  patent  element  there  are  countless  latent 

1  Emerson's  "  Essays,"  Character  (near  the  beginning),  "  He  quotes." 
Yes,  but  from  where  ?  Dr.  Stanton  Coit  writes,  in  reply  to  the  author's 
suggestion  that  Emerson  was  quoting  from  himself,  "  I  can't  think  that 
even  an  American  could  have  faked  the  passage,  but  I  confess  it  sounds 
astonishingly  like  Emerson  himself." 

16 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY  • 

ones."  *  And  elsewhere  he  extends  the  observation  to 
the  national  sphere.  "  Different  aspects  of  the  multi- 
farious character  of  man  respond  to  different  calls  from 
.  without,  so  that  the  same  individual,  and  much  more  the 
same  race,  may  behave  very  differently  at  different 
epochs." — "  The  same  nation,"  he  adds,  "  may  be  seized 
by  a  military  fervour  at  one  period  and  by  a  commercial 
one  at  another;  they  may  be  humbly  submissive  to  a 
monarch,  or  they  may  become  atrocious  republicans. 
The  love  of  art,  gaiety,  adventure,  science,  religion,  may 
be  severally  paramount  at  different  times."  2  And,  as 
we  have  already  suggested,  the  historians  have  seized 
upon  the  paramount  passion  of  the  period,  or  of  the 
most  notorious  or  distinguished  people  during  that 
period,  to  express  the  national  character  for  the  time 
being,  without  considering  in  what  relationship  the 
paramount  passion,  the  patent  tendency,  stood  to  the 
latent  qualities  of  the  national  disposition,  and  without 
inquiring  whether  the  successive  apparent  changes  of 
character  did  not  spring  from  some  uniform  principle 
giving  harmony  and  consistency  to  the  most  flagrant 
diversities.  From  this  point  of  view  it  would  seem  that 
we  should  look  to  find  the  character  of  a  nation,  not  so 
much  in  the  comparatively  restricted  sphere  of  its 
actual  achievements,  as  in  a  consideration  of  what  it  were 
capable  of  achieving  were  all  its  latent  powers  called 
into  action.  This,  at  any  rate,  is  a  noble  hypothesis, 
placing  no  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  national  develop- 
ment, whether  in  the  physical,  intellectual,  or  moral 
sphere.  At  present,  however,  we  only  mention  the 
suggestion  as  among,  the  considerations  necessarily 
complicating  a  question  winch  has  too  often  been 
regarded  as  one  of  the  very  simplest  playthings  of 
the  picturesque  historian. 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  difficulties  which  face  us  in 
starting  an  inquiry  into  the  origin  and  development  of 

1  Galton,  Hereditary  Genius  (Macmillan,  1892),  p.  353. 

2  Galton,  Human  Faculty  (Dent's  "  Everyman's  Library  "  edition), 
pp.  128-9.     Cf .  Dr.  George  Brandes  :  "  The  national  character  manifests 
itself  quite  differently  in  different  times." — Poland :  a  Study  of  the  Land, 
People,  and  Literature,  by  George  Brandes.  p.  239  (Wm.  Heinemann, 
1903). 

c  17 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

national  character,  difficulties  which,  we  have  suggested, 
are  largely  due  to  the  extreme  variety  and  complexity 
of  the  facts  themselves,  a  variety  and  complexity  which 
have  hitherto  been  insufficiently  recognized.  It  has, 
perhaps,  been  too  readily  thought  that  the  problem  of 
national  character  was  solved  when  a  bare  enumeration 
of  certain  qualities  as  exhibited  on  the  national  stage  has 
been  arrived  at ;  whereas  it  is  clear  that  character  con- 
sists less  in  the  enumeration  of  single  qualities  than  in 
the  relationship  into  which  such  qualities  in  their  totality 
enter  with  the  facts  of  their  environment.  This  relation- 
ship may,  as  we  have  already  hinted,  be  either  express 
or  implied,  since  character  may  be  none  the  less  a  real 
power  because  it  is  not  forever  restlessly  bestirring  itself 
in  the  field  of  phenomena,  but  may  remain  unmoved 
upon  the  consciousness  of  its  own  dynamic  possibilities. 
But  whether  express  or  implied,  the  relationship  is  there, 
and  whether  active  or  passive,  overtly  displayed  or 
secretly  hinted,  must  constitute  our  sole  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  nature  of  the  qualities  which  constitute 
character.  If,  according  to  Goethe's  poetical  discrimina- 
tion between  "  character  "  and  "  talent,"  the  former  is 
shaped  by  the  forces  of  the  stream  of  mundane1  life, 
while  the  latter  is  the  product  of  a  calm  detachment  from 
activity,  it  is  not  necessary  to  be  constantly  struggling 
against  the  current  of  life  in  order  to  prove  that  we  are 
not  mere  persons  of  talent.1  But  the  stream  is  here,  and 
we  are  "here ;  we  are  part  of  the  stream ;  and  whether  we 
struggle  or  are  still  we  show  what  we  are  made  of. 
Thomas  a  Kempis  has  "  character  "  as  well  as  Marcus 
Aurelius ;  Montaigne  as  well  as  Napoleon ;  St.  John  as 
Avell  as  St.  Peter ;  and  no  mere  enumeration  of  separate 
qualities  will,  in  any  one  of  these  examples,  expose  the 
secret  of  personality.  Character  can  only  be  finally 
studied  in  the  relationship  which  personality  assumes 
towards  environment;  and  such  relationship  is  not 
necessarily  active,  character  being  potentiality  of  action, 
whether  the  potentiality  be  energized  or  left  in  a  latent 
condition. 

1  Goethe,  Torquato  Tasso,  Act  I,  Sc.  ii — 

"  Es  bildet  ein  Talent  sich  in  der  Stille, 
Sich  ein  Charakter  in  dem  Strom  der  Welt." 

18 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

This  is  a  consideration  which  should  not  be  overlooked 
in  any  endeavour  to  probe  the  secret  of  character, 
whether  personal  or  national,  and,  adding  it  to  the  other 
difficulties  which  confront  our  inquiry,  we  proceed  to 
give  that  closer  analysis  promised  of  the  more  important 
theories  which  have  been  formed  to  explain  the  origin 
and  development  of  character  in  communities. 


19 


CHAPTER  II 

t 

Current  Theories  as  to  the  Origin  and  Development  of  national 
Character — The  "  Geographical  "  and  "  Hereditarian  "  Schools — 
M.  Gustave  Le  Bon  and  his  Theory  of  the  "  Unalterable  National 
Soul " — Von  Ihering :  National  Character  first  formed  by  geo- 
graphical Influences,  then  transmitted  by  Heredity — Canon  Isaac 
Taylor :  the  Characters  of  European  Nationalities  already  formed 
in  the  primitive  Races  from  which  they  sprang — Ratzel :  Differ- 
ences  of  national  Character  entirely  due  to  the  Operation  of 
geographical  Influences — Professor  Cyril  Burt :  Transmission  of 
mental  Qualities  by  Heredity — Conclusion :  National  Character 
the  Product  of  Environment,  and  not  of  "  racial "  Heredity. 

THEORIES  of  national  character  claim  to  be  either 
geographical  or  hereditarian,  but,  notwithstanding  the 
scientific  precision  affected  by  those  who  use  these 
terms,  it  is  found  that  no  theory  falls  purely  under  one 
or  the  other  definition,  but  that  all,  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  contain  elements  of  both  descriptions. 

First,  at  any  rate  in  popular  vogue,  comes  the  view 
which  is  at  once  vaguely  and  tenaciously  held  by  the 
vast  majority  of  civilized  people,  which  has  received 
in  England  the  emphatic  support  of  Lord  Acton,  but 
which  has  taken  its  most  appropriate  literary  shape  in 
the  writings  of  M.  Gustave  Le  Bon.1  This  is  the  theory 
which  has  borrowed  from  theology  the  highly  con- 

1  Le  Bon,  Psychology  of  Peoples,  Chap.  I.  Cf.  Lord  Acton :  "  For 
the  same  race  of  men  preserves  its  character,  not  only  in  every  region 
of  the  world,  but  in  every  period  of  history,  in  spite  of  moral  as  well 
as  physical  influences.  Were  not  the  Semitic  races  everywhere  and 
always  monotheists  ?  whilst  Japhetic  nations,  from  Hindostan  to  Scandi- 
navia, were  originally  pantheists  or  polytheists." — Historical  Essays 
and  Studies  (Macmillan,  1907),  p.  341.  The  fact  that  Lord  Acton 
evidently  does  not  appreciate  the  change  of  position  involved  in  the 
transition  from  "  everywhere  and  always  "  in  the  case  of  the  Semites, 
to  "  originally  "  in  that  of  the  Japhetic  nations,  is  delightfully  illus- 
trative of  the  confusion  affecting  the  clearest  minds  under  the  influence 
of  the  racial  fallacy.  Besides,  what  is  the  resemblance  between  pan- 
theism and  polytheism  that  they  should  necessarily  be  the  result  of 
an  identical  racial  endowment? 

20 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

troversial  term  "  soul "  as  the  best  means  of  expressing 
what  is  meant  by  the  character  of  a  nation.  From  this 
"  soul,"  itself  unchanging  and  unchangeable,  as  con- 
stant in  its  immaterial  qualities  as  an  animal  species 
in  its  anatomical  characteristics,  have  sprung  "  the 
various  elements  of  which  a  civilization  is  composed." — 
"  In  all  the  manifestations  of  the  life  of  a  people  we  always 
find  the  unchangeable  soul  of  the  race  itself  weaving 
its  own  destiny."  This  "  soul  "  is  composed  of  certain 
"  sentiments,"  such  as  perseverance,  energy,  power  of 
self-control  and  morality,  intelligence  being  expressly 
excluded  from  the  list  of  these  soul-forming  sentiments 
and  from  any  operative  power  over  their  action  or 
development.  The  "  character,"  we  are  told,  and  not 
the  intelligence,  of  a  people  determines  its  historical 
evolution.  "  Peoples  may  do  at  a  pinch  without  an 
intellectual  elite,  but  not  without  a  certain  level  of 
character."  1 — "  The  fundamental  factor  in  the  fall  of 
nations  is  always  found  to  be  a  change  in  their  mental 
constitution  resulting  from  the  deterioration  of  their 
character.  I  cannot  call  to  mind  a  single  people  that 
has  disappeared  in  consequence  of  the  deterioration  of 
its  intelligence."  It  is  "  character,"  thus  divorced  from 
intelligence,  which  constitutes  the  unalterable  soul  of  a 
people.  Merely  intellectual  qualities  are  capable  of 
being  modified  by  environmental  influence  such  as 
education;  qualities  of  character  almost  totally  escape 
that  influence.  No  matter  what  external  changes  a 
nation  may  undergo,  the  soul  of  the  people,  its  "  char- 
acter," maintains  an  imperturbable  and  motionless 
stolidity.  In  France,  for  example,  "  whether  the 
authority  placed  at  the  head  of  the  State  is  called  king, 
emperor,  or  president,  etc.,  is  of  no  importance;  this 
authority,  whatever  it  be,  will  perforce  have  the  same 
ideal,  and  this  ideal  is  the  same  expression  of  the  senti- 
ments of  the  soul  of  the  race." — "  Intransigents, 
Radicals,  Monarchists,  Socialists,  in  a  word,  all  the 
champions  of  the  most  diverse  doctrines,  pursue  an 

•* 

1  Psychology  of  Peoples,  p.  46.  And  yet  he  had  just  said  (p.  43) 
that  the  disappearance  of  this  intellectual  elite  would  cause  to  disappear 
at  the  same  time  "  all  that  constitutes  the  glory  of  a  nation — the 
nation  would  become  a  body  urithout  a  soul" 

21 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

absolutely  identical  end  :  the  absorption  of  the  indi- 
vidual by  the  State."  And  this  is  the  "  character,"  the 
"  soul,"  that  weaves  the  destiny  of  France.  And  also 
it  is  the  gift  of  heredity;  unchangeable,  immovable, 
ineluctable.  "  Forms  of  thought,  logic,  and,  above  all, 
character,  are  created  by  heredity  alone.  Environment 
affects  it  little,  or  not  at  all."-  -"  The  influences  of  en- 
vironment only  become  really  effective  when  heredity 
has  caused  their  action  to  be  continued  in  the  same 
direction  through  a  long  period."  For  all  practical 
purposes  the  soul,  the  character,  of  the  nation  is 
unchangeable.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  fatal 
unchangeability  of  the  national  character,  M.  Le  Bon 
lives  in  a  state  of  constant  trepidation  lest  his  "  solidly 
constituted  collective  soul  "  is  going  to  dissolve  at  the 
first  touch  of  external  pressure.  "  The  dissociation  of 
the  national  soul  always  marks  the  hour  of  its  decadence. 
The  intervention  of  foreign  elements  constitutes  the 
surest  means  of  this  dissociation  being  compassed." 
Every  day  the  Latin  nations,  particularly  France, 
"  are  losing  their  initiative,  their  energy,  their  will,  and 
their  capacity  to  act  " — in  a  word,  their  unchangeable 
soul  is  changing.  Elsewhere  M.  Le  Bon  states  that 
Socialism,  by  its  conception  of  international  solidarity, 
is  introducing  into  national  life  those  foreign  elements 
which,  by  breaking  up  the  solidly  constituted  collective 
soul,  lead  rapidly  and  inevitably  to  national  decadence 
and  disruption.1  Where  is  now  the  unalterable  national 
soul?  Broken  up  under  the  influence  of  an  environ- 
ment which  does  not  affect  it,  it  can  only  be  altered 
back  again  to  its  original  unalterable  condition  by  a 
further  change  of  environment,  the  imposition,  namely, 
of  very  severe  universal  military  service  and  the  perpetual 
menace  of  disastrous  wars. 

M.  Le  Bon's  theory  of  the  unalterable  soul  thus  com- 
mits suicide  at  the  first  touch  of  reality.  That  he  should 
adhere  to  it  in  the  face  of  so  much  evidence  accumulated 

1  "  The  presence,  in*the  midst  of  a  people,  of  foreigners  even  in 
small  numbers,  is  sufficient  to  affect  its  soul;  since  it  causes  it  to  lose 
its  capacity  for  defending  the  characteristics  of  its  race,  the  monuments 
of  its  history,  and  the  achievements  of  its  ancestors." — Psychology  of 
Peoples,  p.  164.  See  also  Book  V.  chap.  i. 

22 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

by  himself  is  an  example  of  the  effect  of  political  prejud- 
ice in  hampering  a  vigorous  intellect  and  clouding  a 
lucid  style.  He  supplies  abundance  of  excellent  material 
out  of  which  one  could  construct  a  theory  of  national 
character  totally  different  from  the  view  he  has  chosen 
to  advocate,  and  free,  at  any  rate,  from  its  ludicrous 
self-contradictions.  He  states  explicitly  at  the  outset 
that  he  will  only  deal  with  the  formation  and  mental 
constitution  of  the  historic  races,  that  is,  of  "  the 
races  artificially  formed  in  historic  times  by  the  chances 
of  conquest,  immigration  and  political  changes."  Allow- 
ing for  the  evident  misuse  of  the  term  "  races  "  in  this 
sentence,  the  context  showing  that  he  means,  not  races, 
but  nations  or  peoples,1  he  correctly  describes  the  main 
influences  which  have  moulded  the  character  and  destiny 
of  the  various  historic  nations  of  modern  times.  Stating, 
accurately  enough,  that  "  there  is  scarcely  a  European 
people  which  is  not  formed  of  the  debris  of  other  peoples," 
he  show;s  how  modern  nations  have  arisen  through  the 
fusion  of  communities  previously  separate  and  frequently 
hostile  to  each  other,  and  expresses  the  view  that  in 
the  Englishman  we  have  the  only  European  example 
of  a  homogeneous  result  of  this  fusion.  Now  it  is 
manifest  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  about 
the  theory  of  the  unalterable  soul,  if,  as  M.  Le  Bon 
says  in  various  places,  Briton,  Saxon,  and  Norman 
have  become  fused  into  a  highly  homogeneous  type. 
How  could  three  unalterable  souls  maintain  their 
separate  unalterability  by  fusing  into  a  fourth?  And 
here  is  a  significant  passage  in  one  who  has  denied  the 
influence  of  environment  in  forming  character :  "  To 
enable  a  nation  to  constitute  itself  and  to  endure,  it  is 
necessary  that  its  formation  should  be  slow,  and  the 
result  of  the  gradual  fusion  of  but  slightly  different 
races,  interbreeding,  living  on  the  same  soil,  undergoing 
the  action  of  the  same  environment,  and  having  the 
same  institutions  and  beliefs.  After  the  lapse  of  several 
centuries  these  distinct  races  may  come  to  form  a 
highly  homogeneous  nation."  How  reasonable  is  this, 
compared  with  the  Laputan  generalities  about  "  the 

1  "  It  is  only  among  savages  that  it  is  possible  to  find  peoples  of' 
absolute  racial  purity." — Psychology  of  Peoples,  p.  16. 

23 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

unchangeable  soul  of  the  race  weaving  its  own  destiny  "  ! 
Do  not  the  "  living  on  the  same  soil,  undergoing  the 
action  of  the  same  environment,  and  having  the  same 
institutions  and  beliefs,"  explain  why  in  France  "  all 
the  champions  of  the  most  diverse  political  doctrines 
pursue  an  absolutely  identical  end  "  ?  The  "  unalter- 
able soul "  theory  will  not  explain  that  distressing 
unanimity,  because,  as  M.  Le  Bon  remarks,  "  if  there 
does  not  yet  exist  an  average  type  of  the  Frenchman, 
there  at  least  exist  average  types  of  certain  regions. 
Unfortunately  these  types  are  very  distinct  as  regards 
their  ideas  and  character,"  i.  e.  instead  of  France  having 
one  unalterable  national  soul  she  has  several  distinct 
souls  located  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  as  in 
so  many  pineal  glands,  and  these  several  souls  are  really 
only  one  soul,  because  they  pursue  the  same  end  with 
the  painful  unanimity  to  which  M.  Le  Bon  refers. 

We  cannot  refrain  from  one  last  quotation  from  M.  Le 
Bon,  because  it  disposes  of  his  theory  with  a  blow  from 
which  it  cannot  recover.  "  It  thus  happens  that  by 
means  of  heredity,  education,  surroundings,  contagion 
and  opinion,  the  men  of  each  age  and  of  each  race 
possess  a  sum  of  average  conceptions  which  render  them 
singularly  like  one  another,  alike,  indeed,  to  such  a 
degree  that,  when  the  lapse  of  centuries  allows  us  to 
consider  them  from  their  proper  perspective,  we  recog- 
nize by  their  artistic,  philosophical  and  literary  produc- 
tions the  epoch  at  which  they  lived." — "  It  is  precisely 
this  network  of  common  traditions,  ideas,  sentiments, 
beliefs  and  modes  of  thinking,  that  form  the  soul  of  a 
people."  And  as  M.  Le  Bon  elsewhere  speaks  of  these 
common  traditions,  etc.,  as  "  that  compact  stock  of 
hereditary  commonplaces  imposed  upon  us  by  educa- 
tion," it  would  appear  that  heredity,  with  this  writer, 
is  not  necessarily  heredity  by  blood  but  by  tradition, 
and  he  thus  himself  clearly  expresses  the  opinion  that 
the  character  of  a  nation  is  entirely  dependent  upon 
environment  and  not  upon  an  unalterable  strain  trans- 
mitted through  the  blood.  Let  us  accept  this  conclusion 
with  gratitude  from  M.  Le  Bon  the  historical  critic, 
leaving  the  "  unalterable  soul "  to  be  the  plaything  of 
M.  Le  Bon  the  political  rhetorician. 

24 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  a  variation  of  this 
theory  is  current  in  Germany,  where,  in  some  shape  or 
another,  it  has  been  popular  since  Hegel  taught  the 
necessity  of  a  unified  German  Empire  based  upon 
community  of  race  and  language.  Although  von 
Ihering,  its  most  lucid  and  eloquent  exponent,  wrote 
before  the  recent  great  revival  of  anthropological  and 
ethnological  investigation,  his  work  on  the  Evolution 
of  the  Aryan  presents  the  case  in  a  manner  which  needs 
no  alteration  from  later  advocates  of  the  same  theory. 
The  strange  thing  about  von  Ihering  is  that,  although 
he  is  a  convinced  believer  in  the  theory  of  the  unalter- 
able soul  transmissible  by  heredity,  he  devotes  the 
earlier  and  greater  part  of  his  book  to  demonstrating, 
like  any  student  of  Buckle,  that  national  character  is 
the  direct  result  of  geographical  and  climatic  conditions. 
His  main  thesis  is  that  the  various  colonizing  offshoots 
of  the  original  "  Aryan  "  stock,  whose  habitat  he  places, 
in  harmony  with  a  now  heterodox  theory,  in  Central 
Asia,  were  all  marked  when  they  left  home  by  the 
same  national,  Aryan  character,  the  product  of  the 
geographical  and  climatic  situation  of  the  original 
fatherland.  The  differences  which  were  subsequently 
developed  between  the  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Slavonic, 
Greek,  Roman,  Iranian  and  Hindu  national  characters, 
were  entirely  the  work  of  the  different  physical  environ- 
ments in  which  these  various  peoples  settled.  "  The 
soil  is  the  nation  " — that  is  the  pregnant  phrase  in 
which  von  Ihering  summarizes  his  conclusions.  But 
as  soon  as  his  array  of  facts  and  his  procession  of  argu- 
ments have  convinced  the  reader  that  here  is  a  writer 
who  has  found  the  truth,  he  perplexes  and  disturbs 
beyond  expression  by  asserting  that  the  first  formation 
of  national  character  under  the  influence  of  the  environ- 
ment is  final,  decisive  and  unchangeable,  and  is  hence- 
forward transmitted  by  racial  heredity;  a  theory 
exemplified  by  his  statement  that  the  character  of  the 
Celts  and  the  character  of  the  Teutons,  as  described  by 
Caesar  and  Tacitus,  are  fundamentally  the  same  as 
those  of  their  respective  descendants  to-day.  If  this 
view  be  correct,  we  must  believe  that  the  Teutons,  for 
example,  when  they  "  left  Central  Asia  "  with  the  fully 

25 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

formed  national,  Aryan  character  they  had  obtained 
under  the  geographical  conditions  prevailing  there,  had 
this  fully  formed  national  character  profoundly  modified 
by  the  new  geographical  conditions  of  their  European 
habitat,  and  that  at  some  time  before  the  end  of  the 
first  Christian  century,  when  Tacitus  wrote  his  account 
of  Germany,  they  had  acquired  a  new  national  character, 
which  has  since  been  transmitted  unchanged  from  one 
generation  to  another.  But  if  the  character  of  the 
Germans  was  due  to  their  geographical  position,  and  if 
that  character  has  remained  fundamentally  unaltered  for 
at  least  2000  years,  to  what  cause  are  we  to  assign  the 
failure  of  the  soil  to  continue  its  developing  influence? 
and  at  what  point  are  we  to  fix  the  cessation  of  its 
power  ?  "  Soil,"  to  von  Ihering,  is  not  the  mere  land, 
tilled,  pastured,  mined,  or  built  over  by  the  inhabitants, 
but  the  whole  complex  of  its  relationships  with  other 
lands  whose  geographical  position  brings  them  into 
connexion  with  it.  Now  it  is  notorious  that  ever  since 
the  days  of  Tacitus  the  inter-relationships  of  European 
communities  in  this  respect  have  been  constantly 
changing.  Not  to  mention  the  extensive  shiftings  and 
interminglings  of  populations  during  the  first  millennium 
of  our  era,  we  have  what  is  practically  a  complete  change 
of  geographical  situation  effected  for  all  the  nations  of 
Europe  by  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  and  the 
establishment  of  closer  intercourse  with  the  peoples  of 
the  Far  East.  At  what  particular  moment  in  the  history 
of  a  people  does  its  geographical  position  cease  to  affect 
the  character  which  it  has  produced?  The  foreign 
policy  of  the  rulers  of  Britain  has  always  been  con- 
ditioned by  her  geographical  position,  and  her  geo- 
graphical position  has  varied  almost  from  day  to  day, 
according  to  the  changing  sentiments  which  actuate 
foreign  nations  in  their  relationships  with  her  and 
which  reciprocally  actuate  her  in  her  relationships  with 
foreign  nations.1  If,  therefore,  it  is  true  that  national 

1  "  Not  only  will  the  Adriatic  outlet  enable  Servia  to  have  freedom 
of  export  and  import,  it  will  give  her  new  neighbours,  sipce  every 
maritime  nation"  will  then  be  Servia's  neighbour  as  much  as  Austria 
is  to-day.  This  is  especially  true  of  England.  This  point  of  contact 
with  England  .  .  .  will  enable  her  to  develop  freely  and  liberally, 

26 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

character  depends  upon  geographical  situation,  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  the  final  crystallization  of 
national  character,  which  must,  on  the  contrary,  be 
constantly  undergoing  modifications  of  a  varying  degree 
of  extent  and  intensity. 

The  theory  of  the  "  unalterable  soul  "  thus  expounded 
by  M.  Le  Bon,  and  in  a  modified  form  by  von  Ihering, 
may,  perhaps,  be  thought  to  have  been  placed  upon  a 
securer  basis  by  the  efforts  of  some  modern  ethnologists 
to  trace  back  the  descent  of  the  peoples  of  European 
nationalities,  with  the  object  of  showing  that,  though 
all  are  descended  from  some  very  few,  say  three  or  four, 
primitive  races,  yet  these  primitive  races  had  separate 
characteristics  which  have  come  down  to  their  de- 
scendants, who  have  every  cause  to  be  proud  or  ashamed 
of  their  ancestry  accordingly.  The  results  of  modern 
ethnological  investigations  are  used  by  some  able 
scientists  of  the  present  day  to  place  the  theory  of 
racial  character  upon  a  simpler  and  apparently  more 
reasonable  basis  than  it  had  previously  occupied.  The 
most  interesting- and,  for  the  layman,  most  useful  book 
from  this  point  of  view  is  that  of  Canon  Isaac  Taylor 
on  The  Origin  of  the  Aryans.1  This  writer,  summarizing 
ethnological  results  as  he  reads  them,  says  that  all  the 
present  populations  of  Europe  are  descended  from  four 
races  who  occupied  it  in  Neolithic  times.  These  were  : 
(1)  the  Scandinavians,  a  tall,  long-headed,  fair-haired, 
blue-eyed,  white-skinned  race ;  (2)  the  Iberians,  a  short, 
long-headed,  dark-haired,  dark-eyed,  dark-skinned  race ; 
(3)  the  Celts,  a  tall,  short-headed,  red-haired,  light-eyed, 
ruddy-skinned  race;  and  (4)  the  Ligurians,  a  short, 
short -headed,  black-haired,  black-eyed,  dark-skinned 
race.  And  here  is  an  example  of  the  conclusions 
reached  in  '  consequence  of  this  classification  :  "  The 
energy,  the  self-will,  the  fondness  for  adventure  and 
the  love  of  combat  which  have  enabled  the  Teutonic 
peoples  to  extend  their  rule  over  the  world,  come  from 

encouraged  and  stimulated  by  the  freedom  and  justice  of  England." — 
Letter  of  M.  Pashitch,  Prime  Minister  of  Serbia,  in  The  Times,  Nov. 
25,  1915. 

1  "  The  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  by  Isaac  Taylor,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  Hon. 
LL.D.  (Walter  Scott :  The  "  Contemporary  Science  "  Series). 

27 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  dolichocephalic  race;  but  the  intellect  and  genius 
of  Europe,  the  great  writers,  and  more  especially  the 
men  of  science,  belong  rather  to  the  brachycephalic 
race."  Again,  "  the  dolichocephalic  Teutonic  race  is 
Protestant,  the  brachycephalic  Celto-Slavic  race  is  either 
Roman  Catholic  or  Greek  Orthodox.  In  the  first, 
individualism,  wilfulness,  self-reliance,  independence, 
are  strongly  developed;  the  second  is  submissive  to 
authority  and  conservative  in  instincts.  Ulster,  the 
most  Teutonic  province  of  Ireland,  is  also  the  most 
firmly  Protestant."  l  It  is  surely  a  matter  for  the 
most  serious  consideration,  which  we  may  recommend 
to  the  notice  of  the  unwearied  author  of  the  latest,  and 
one  hopes  the  last,  work  on  the  Baconian  heresy,  why 
our  historians  have  unanimously  failed  to  record  the 
fact  that  the  conversion  of  England  to  Protestantism 
was  accompanied  by  a  sudden  change  in  the  skulls  of 
the  population  from  short  to  long.  If  Protestantism 
means  "  long-headed "  in  the  scientific  and  not  the 
Stock  Exchange  sense,  why  did  Luther,  the  great 
Protestant  and  rebel  par  excellence,  belong,  as  Canon 
Taylor  tells  us  he  belonged,  to  the  short-headed,  sub- 
missive race?  If  the  short-headed  people  are  submis- 
sive to  authority  and  conservative  in  instinct,  why  did 
that  universal  revolutionist,  Goethe,  belong,  as  Canon 
Taylor  tells  us,  to  the  short -headed  race?  And  how 
does  it  happen  that  Shakespeare  (as  Dr.  Keith  tells  us) 
is  "  short -headed  "  while  Burns  is  "  long-headed  "  ? 
Was  Shakespeare,  as  an  artist  and  a  poet,  submissive 
to  authority  and  conservative  in  instinct  ?  Was  Burns 
no  genius  because  he  was  not  of  the  race  to  which  the 
"  intellect  and  genius  of  Europe  "  belong?  2  And  these 
sweeping  conclusions  are  all  based  upon  the  measure- 
ments, more  or  less  exact,  of  a  few  skulls  and  other 
bones  which  have  been  preserved — more  or  less — 
beneath  the  soil  for  several  thousands  of  years.  Before 
the  war  turned  our  thoughts  in  other  directions,  the 
world  was  being  disturbed  by  a  veritable  tornado  of 
mutually  destructive  scientific  dogmatism  raging  around 
the  recently  discovered  Piltdown  bones.  This  is  what 

1  Isaac  Taylor,  pp.  246-9. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  245.    See  next  note  for  Dr.  Keith. 

28 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Canon  Taylor  calls  the  "  New  Science  "  of  Craniology, 
which  permits  its  French  and  German  acolytes  to  arrive 
at  "  scientific "  conclusions  in  harmony  with  their 
respective  "  patriotic  "  prejudices.1  The  present  writer 
frankly  and  gladly  admits  that  on  this  subject  he  is  a 
disciple  of  M.  Jean  Finot,  whose  famous  and  fascinating 
book  on  Race  Prejudice  has,  in  his  opinion,  laid  the 
ghost  of  racial  pride  beyond  power  of  resuscitation. 
"  The  European  population  presents  a  mixture  of  long- 
headed, short-headed,  medium-headed  peoples.  All 
these  types  are  dispersed  throughout  Europe  in  the  same  ' 
countries,  the  same  districts,  the  same  families.  Koll- 
mann  tells  us,  with  reason,  that  all  the  skulls  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Europe  approximate  so  much  to  one 
another  that  one  might  speak  of  a  European  skull.  If 
we  say  '  European '  it  is  only  a  manner  of  speaking.  It 
is  the  civilized  skull  with  which  we  are  concerned,  which 
is  distinct  from  the  skull  of  non-civilized  and  primitive 
peoples  living  outside  civilization,  and  deprived  of  that 
cerebral  exercise  which  civilization  imposes."  And 
as  with  skulls  so  with  complexions.  Germany,  the  land 
of  the  fair-haired,  fair-skinned  people,  the  marks  of  the 
noble,  ruling  Aryan  race,  showed,  among  seven  million 
school  children,  31  per  cent,  of  fair-haired,  14  per  cent, 
of  brown-haired,  and  55  per  cent,  of  mixed  type.  And 
as  with  skulls  and  complexions,  so  with  blood.  "  The 
anthropologists  have  not  succeeded  in  finding  the 
essential  variations  in  the  composition  of  the  blood 
between  men  of  yellow,  black  and  white  colour.  Even 
the  external  signs  are  misleading.  Mr.  Booker  Washing- 
ton dwells  pleasantly  on  the  embarrassments  of  railway 

1  Dr.  Keith,  in  an  article  on  the  heads  of  Burns  and  Shakespeare 
(see  the  British  Medical  Journal,  Feb.  28,  1914),  though  quite  positive 
in  his  ascription  of  Shakespeare  to  the  "  short-heads  "  and  Burns 
to  the  "  long-heads,"  does  not  indulge  in  the  usual  dogmatism  as 
regards  the  results  of  the  ascription.  "  Is  it  possible,"  he  asks,  "  that 
we  may  explain  the  extraordinary  difference  in  the  working  of  their 
brains  by  the  diversity  of  their  racial  origin  ?  "  And  this  seems  quite 
as  far  as  any  one  is  justified  in  going.  We  imagine  that  Dr.  Keith, 
or  any  other  anthropologist,  would  not  have  been  in  the  least  degree 
surprised  if  Shakespeare  had  been  "  long-headed  "  and  Burns  "  short- 
headed,"  instead  of  the  reverse,  utterly  impossible  as  it  is  to  discover 
what  qualities  of  mind  are  "long-headed"  and  what  are  "short- 
headed." 

29 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

guards  in  the  United  States  when  called  upon  to  decide 
the  important  question,  '  Is  such  a  traveller  a  negro 
or  is  he  not  ?  '  The  followers  of  Canon  Taylor's 
"  New  Science  "  have  as  little  basis  for  their  enormous 
superstructure  of  hereditary  racial  superiorities  and 
inferiorities  as  the  devout  Catholic  who  at  Valencia 
venerates  the  molar  tooth  of  a  mammoth  as  a  relic  of 
St.  Christopher. 

We  shall  see  in  due  course  that  in  England,  at  any 
rate,  there  is  no  possibility  of  a  legitimate  racial  pride, 
except,  perhaps,  in  the  number  of  different  peoples 
from  whom  our  blood  is  drawn.  Finot  has  arrived  at 
the  same  result  in  the  case  of  all  the  historic  European 
nations  in  general.  About  his  own  people  he  says, 
"  France  is  the  vastest  and  richest  reservoir  of  ethnical 
elements,  and  cannot  claim  the  dominant  quality  of 
the  Celtic  people  or  country.  If  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  attribute  Celtic  descent  to  any  European  people, 
that  people  must  be,  not  the  French,  but  the  Germans, 
while  the  French  are,  on  the  other  hand,  more  Teutonic 
in  blood  than  the  Germans."  x  And  yet  we  attribute 
'  Teutonic  phlegm  "  and  "  Gallic  vivacity  "  to  the 
influence  of  race  ! 

A  less  objectionable  variation  of  the  "  geographical  " 
theory  of  national  character  is  that  especially  associated 
with  the  name  of  Ratzel,  the  author  of  a  profound  and 
fascinating  History  of  Mankind,  in  which  the  relation- 
ships of  the  different  human  inhabitants  of  this  globe 
are  treated  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  geographical 
distribution.2  Ratzel  doubts — and  one  is  happy  to 
miss  the  dogmatic  assertiveness  of  his  compatriot,  von 
Ihering — whether  in  physical  or  intellectual  power,  in 
virtue  or  capacity,  we,  the  latest  birth  of  time,  are 
far  ahead  of  our  earliest  generation  of  historically 
recorded  ancestors,  and  he  regards  the  main  difference 
between  us  and  them  as  lying  in  the  fact  that  we  have 
"laboured  more,  acquired  more,  lived  more  rapidly, 

1  Race  Prejudice,   by  Jean   Finot,   translated   by   Florence   Wade 
Evans  (London  :  A.  Constable  &  Co.,  1906). 

2  The  History  of  Mankind,  by  Professor  Friedrich  Ratzel,  translated 
from  the  second  German  edition  by  A.  J.  Butler,  M.A.,  with  Introduc- 
tion by  E.  B.  Tylor,  D.C.L.,  F.E.S.  (London  :  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1898). 

30 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

and,  above  all,  have  kept  what  we  hare  acquired  and 
known  how  to  use  it."  Ratzel  cites  the  Troglodytes 
of  Herodotus  (who  dwelt  near  the  Garamantes,  "  the 
inhabitants  of  the  modem  Fezzan"),  identical  with  the 
Tebus  of  to-day,  "  who  inhabit  the  natural  caverns  in 
their  rocks,"  and  "  have  lived  for  2000  years  in  just 
the  same  way,  having  acquired  nothing  in  addition  to 
what  they  possessed  then." 1  He  argues  that  the 
differences  of  civilization  which  create  the  gap  existing 
between  two  groups  of  human  beings  are  quite  inde- 
pendent of  their  mental  endowment,  being  due,  not  to 
changes  of  intellectual  or  physical  capacity,  but  to  the 
mass  of  environmental  accident,  which  is  the  true 
operative  cause  in  determining  the  height  of  their 
respective  degrees  of  civilization.  This  view  regards 
the  physical  and  intellectual  capacity  of  a  race  as  con- 
stituting an  hereditaiy  factor  which  remains  constant 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  does  not  perceptibly 
vary  in  different  races.  It  argues  that  the  difference 
of  achievement  between  nation  and  nation  is  due  to 
the  difference  in  the  circumstances  upon  which  the 
constant  factors  have  had  to  operate,  not,  however, 
because  the  environment  has  stamped  itself  upon  the 
race  in  the  production  of  fresh  qualities,  which  have 
then  been  transmitted  by  heredity,  but  rather  because 
the  same  essentially  unchanging  factors  have  had 
different  circumstances  to  contend  with,  and  have, 
therefore,  exhibited  themselves  in  a  different  way,  have, 
in  a  word,  produced  differences  of  character.  The 
natural  capacity,  intellectual,  moral,  physical,  of  any 
people  is,  therefore,  represented  by  an  unvarying  x, 
which  is  the  same  for  Teuton,  Celt,  Hindu,  Mongolian, 
Negro,  etc.,  the  manifest  differences  of  character  which 
we  now  observe  in  these  varying  peoples  being  due  to 
the  differences  of  their  environment,  which  have  caused 
the  unvarying  x  to  enter  into  combination  with  a 
constantly  varying  y.  So  far  as  concerns  the  differ- 
ences that  arise  from  epoch  to  epoch  in  the  history  of 

1  Herodotus :  JHelp.  183 — ol  Tapaf^avres  tie  ovroi  roiis  rpaiy \oSvras 
AlBioiras  6-rjpfvov(ri  Total  rtOpiirirotcn.  Ol  yap  rpcoy\oSvTai  AlOtoTres,  iroSas 
TaX'tfToi  avOptairiav  trdvr<av  fieri  riit>v  rj/j.f'ts  irepi  \6yovs  airo<pfpo^ivovs  o.Kovofj.ev — 
y\ioffffa.i>  5e  ouSe/uij?  &\\y  irapofioltjv  vevofj.lKO.ffi,  oAAo  rtTptyaffi  KO.Ta.Ttep  al 

See  Ratzel,  pp.  4,  19.  • 

31 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  same  race,  these  also  are  due  to  differences  of 
environment.  The  progress  of  civilization  has  brought 
it  about  that  differences  of  circumstance  are  constantly 
arising  for  the  vast  majority  of  human  races;  few 
races  being  confronted  with  the  same  circumstances  in 
two  different  generations,  each  generation  having  its 
own  in  addition  to  those  that  have  been  handed  down 
to  it  by  tradition.  Constancy  of  the  hereditary  factor 
would,  therefore,  be  quite  consistent  with  a  progressive 
change  of  national  character.  The  hereditary  mental, 
emotional  and  physical  capacities  enter  into  different 
relationships  with  the  changing  environment  of  each 
generation,  and  the  result  is  a  national  character  vary- 
ing from  stage  to  stage  in  the  history  of  the  race.  Rat- 
zel's  strong  perception  of  the  identity  of  the  hereditary 
endowment  does  not  prevent  him  from  seeing  that  the 
character  of  a  people  face  to  face  with  all  the  infinitely 
complicated  influences  of  an  elaborate  civilization  must 
necessarily  be  different  from  the  character  of  a  people 
retaining  the  primitive  environment  of  their  ancestors 
of  2000  years  ago. 

The  theory  of  Ratzel  is  substantially  that  of  Mr.  Burt, 
to  whose  views  reference  has  been  already  made;  but 
the  latter  develops  it  so  as  to  give  the  hereditary  principle 
some  participation  in  effecting  the  changes  of  character 
which  are  manifest  in  the  same  people,  and  which  pro- 
duce gaps  between  different  peoples  even  of  allied 
descent.  Prof.  Burt  maintains  that  the  "  contents  of 
the  mind,  its  memories  and  its  habits,  its  thoughts  and 
its  ideals  are  not  inherited  :  they  are  without  doubt 
acquired  during  the  lifetime  of  the  individual.  But 
the  capacity  to  acquire,  and  the  inclination  towards 
certain  acquisitions,  these  may  be  present  from  the 
beginning." — "  The  intensity  of  mental  inheritance 
appears  closely  to  resemble  that  of  physical  inheritance, 
both  in  man  and  in  other  animals,  and,  so  far  as  mental 
capacity  rather  than  mental  content  is  concerned,  far 
to  outweigh  the  intensity  of  environmental  influences." 
This  principle  of  Karl  Pearson's  is  made  the  subject  of 
some  striking  experiments  recorded  by  Mr.  Burt,  and 
is  then  transferred  from  the  sphere  of  the  individual  to 
that  of  the  nation.  "  Never  have  forces  acted  upon 

32 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  mind  with  such  persistence  and  in  such  numbers  as 
during  the  historic  period ;  never  have  habits,  memories 
and  ideas  been  acquired  and  re-acquired  upon  so  vast  a 
scale.  Yet  there  is  a  striking  consensus  of  opinion  to 
the  effect  that,  in  the  main,  the  human  race  has,  in  its 
innate  qualities,  remained  practically  stationary.  Civili- 
zation, therefore,  has  been  an  advance  in  mental  content 
stored  in  the  environment,  and  re-acquired  with  each 
succeeding  generation,  rather  than  an  improvement  in 
hereditary  capacities,  or  an  inheritance  of  the  improve- 
ments acquired.  All  that  is  inherited  is  the  original 
constitution  common  to  the  race  and  the  congenital 
variations  that  from  time  to  time  spontaneously  occur ; 
the  superiority  of  modern  civilized  man  is  due,  not  to 
hereditary  powers  and  capacities,  but  to  mental  contents 
and  achievements  transmitted  and  accumulated,  not 
by  inheritance  but  by  tradition." 

This,  of  course,  is  in  fundamental  agreement  with 
the  position  of  Ratzel,  corroborating  the  view  that 
national  character  consists  in  the  relationship  into 
which  the  hereditary  mental  factor  enters  with  the 
objective  environment,  or,  to  use  Mr.  Burt's  own  phras- 
ing, into  which  the  hereditary  capacities  enter  with  the 
mental  content  stored  in  the  environment. 

We  must  not,  however,  fail  to  note,  as  opening  the 
door  to  wide  exceptions  to  this  general  agreement,  the 
additional  hereditary  factor  introduced  by  the  words 
just  quoted,  in  which  "  the  congenital  variations  that 
from  time  to  time  spontaneously  occur  "  are  mentioned 
as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  superiority  of  modern  civilized 
man,  such  spontaneously  arising  congenital  variations 
being  ascribed  as  the  cause  of  'the  hereditary  mental 
differences  which  are  asserted  by  Mr.  Burt  as  existing 
among  the  races  of  civilized  Europe.  These  differences 
cannot,  of  course,  be  due  to  differences  in  the  original 
hereditary  capacity  of  the  race,  since  Mr.  Burt  admits 
the  equality  of  all  the  existing  races  of  Europe,  nay, 
of  the  world,  in  that  respect ;  and  it  is  clear,  therefore, 
according  to  this  view,  that  heredity  operates,  not  only 
in  the  transmission  of  the  original  and  constant  factor, 
but  in  the  transmission  of  new  factors  which  have 
spontaneously  arisen.  These  new  factors  are  assigned 
D  33 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

to  tin  operation  of  the  principle  of  "organic  natural 
selection,  overlooked  by  the  biologists,  but  simul- 
taneously discovered  by  an  English  and  an  American 
psychologist." — "  The  principle  of  organic  natural  selec- 
tion postulates  the  inheritance  of  only  small  variations, 
which  occur  in  all  directions,  and  are  successively 
accumulated.  If,  therefore,  in  an  intelligent  animal,  a 
particular  congenital  variation  arises  which  is  useful  to 
the  animal,  it  can  be  eked  out  by  inheritance,  by  acquired 
habits,  and  by  conscious  guidance.  It  will  in  turn 
co-operate  with  intelligence,  and  the  two  together  will 
save  the  animal's  life  where  one  alone  will  not.  Thus 
sheltered,  the  variation  arising  congenitally  in  the  sire 
will  be  protected  and  handed  down  to  the  next  de- 
scendant, although  the  completed  intelligent  action  will 
not.  But  sooner  or  later  some  other  suitable  adaptation 
will  spontaneously  arise  among  the  congenital  varia- 
tions ;  the  two  will  co-operate ;  be  protected ;  and  handed 
down ;  and,  by  the  subsequent  occurrence  of  the  neces- 
sary spontaneous  congenital  variations,  a  completed 
mental  quality  will  eventually  arise  " ;  and,  therefore, 
"  by  the  co-operation  of  mind  natural  selection  can 
evolve  the  most  complex  properties  of  mind. without 
these  properties  being  inherited  except  when  they  are 
inborn."  The  position,  therefore,  is  that  heredity  can, 
in  this  way,  operate  to  "  evolve  the  most  complex 
properties  of  mind,"  and  Mr.  Burt  makes  it  clear 
that  the  great  differences  now  marking  the  characters 
of  the  various  peoples  of  Europe  may  quite  reason- 
ably, in  his  opinion,  be  assigned  to  this  cause,  and 
not  entirely  to  the  differences  in  their  respective 
environments. 

Now  this  view  is  very  plausible,  and  even  a  layman 
in  biology  can  find  it  interesting.  But  in  the  practical 
result  there  seems  little  to  differentiate  it  from  that 
theory  which  Mr.  Burt  characterizes  as  a  "  flagrant 
assumption  "  of  "  the  new  school  of  anthropo -geography," 
the  theory  that,  "  after  environment  has  operated  upon 
a  community  through  a  number  of  generations  in  suc- 
cession, the  characters  thus  accumulatively  re-impressed 
upon  it  must  become  for  the  time  hereditary."  Here- 
dity," says  Mr.  Burt,  "  remains  indispensable  to  explain 

34 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  differences  in  mental  capacities.  These  differences 
are  the  more  fundamental."  It  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
this  position  with  that  previously  assumed  by  Prof. 
Burt,  that  "  in  the  main  the  human  race  has  in  its 
hereditary  qualities  remained  practically  stationary," 
and  that  "  the  superiority  of  modern  civilized  man  is 
due,  not  to  hereditary  powers  and  capacities,  but  to 
mental  contents  and  achievements  transmitted  and  ac- 
cumulated, not  by  inheritance,  but  by  tradition."  That 
position,  we  submit,  is  not  controverted  with  any  effect 
by  the  principle  of  "  organic  natural  selection  " — "  over- 
looked by  the  biologists."  That  the  biologists  have 
overlooked  it  in  their  own  particular  sphere  does  not 
tell  greatly  in  its  favour,  but  the  chief  reason  against  it 
is  that  it  introduces  a  subtle,  complicated,  and  infinitely 
dilatory  principle  to  explain  differences  sufficiently 
intelligible  without  it.  How  long  does  Mr.  Burt  think 
it  would  take  to  establish  a  family,  a  line  of  people, 
all  marked  by  heredity  with  a  completed  quality  ac- 
quired in  this  way?  And  how  much  longer  would  it 
take  for  one  of  the  peoples  of  modern  Europe  to  embody 
that  quality  in  its  national  character  ?  This,  of  course, 
they  could  only  do  by  learning  it  from  the  originally 
endowed  family,  because  it  must  be  a  feat  beyond  even 
the  imagination  of  a  psychologist  to  suppose  a  few 
million  people  all  spontaneously  generating  at  birth 
the  same  congenital  variation.  The  only  means  by 
which  a  mental  variation  in  an  individual  could  affect 
the  mental  character  of  the  community  to  which  the 
individual  belonged  would  be  for  it  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  community  to  its  usefulness  or  its 
beauty,  and  thus  obtain  for  it  a  conspicuous  place  in 
the  communal  environment.  That  is  the  only  way  in 
which  a  genius  like  Shakespeare  can  affect  the  national 
character  of  his  people. 

There  is  thus  a  considerable  body  of  support  for  the 
view  that  the  present  civilized  nations  of  Europe  were, 
at  least  as  far  back  as  their  history  goes,  endowed  with 
intellectual,  moral  and  emotional  capacities  which  were 
fundamentally  the  same  as  they  possess  to-day,  and 
that  the  gaps  which  now  separate  them  in  many  im- 
portant aspects  of  civilization  are  due  to  the  effect  of 

3d 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

separate  environments  upon  their  common  capacities.1 
We  shall  examine  in  a  subsequent  chapter  some  of  the 
conclusions  resulting  from  the  views  of  those  who  hold, 
in  face  of  a  good  deal  of  unanswered  evidence  and 
argument,  that  national  character  is  a  question  of 
racial  descent  alone.  At  present  we  confine  our  remarks 
to  the  suggestion  that  the  question  of  heredity  is  one 
to  which  many  confused  and  conflicting  answers  are 
being  given,  and  that  one  thing  alone  is  certain,  that 
to  explain  differences  of  national  character  by  differ- 
ences of  hereditary  endowments  is  to  introduce  an 
explanation  which  leaves  the  matter  more  in  need  of 
solution  than  before.  The  gradual  alteration  of  national 
character  by  transmitting  to  the  blood  of  one  genera- 
tion the  habits  acquired  by  its  predecessor  cannot  be 
maintained  by  any  one  who  is  not  prepared  to  over- 
throw the  theory  of  Weismann  of  the  non-transference 
by  heredity  of  acquired  characteristics,  or  the  results 
of  Mendel's  experiments  proving  that  even  the  innate 
characteristics  of  parents  of  mixed  blood  do  not  neces- 
sarily or  even  ^  commonly  blend,  but  tend  to  reappear 
in  their  original  purity.2  Weismann,  it  is  true,  admits 
that  the  primary  cause  of  variation  is  always  the  effect 
of  external  influences,  and  that  all  growth  is  connected 
with  smaller  or  greater  deviations  from  the  inherited 
developmental  tendency.  But  he  maintains  that  where 
these  deviations  only  affect  the  body  which  the  germ- 
plasm  has  produced  they  give  rise  to  temporary  non- 

1  "  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  innate  faculties  of  a 
modern  European  differ  essentially,  or  that  they  differ  very  greatly, 
from  those  of  the  savages  who  roamed  the  woods  in  prehistoric  days. 
There  is  clearly  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  brain  of  a  modem  English 
baby  is  intrinsically  more  developed  than  that  of  an  ancient  Athenian 
baby.     Yet  there  is  a  vast  difference  in  many  ways  between  the  morality 
of  the  adult  Englishman  and  that  of  the  Scandinavian  pirate  or  the 
wielder  of  flint  instruments." — The  Science  of  Ethics,  by  Leslie  Stephen 
(Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  1882),  p.   102.      Cp.  Frederick  York  Powell: 
"  Our  minds  are  of  little  better  quality  than  our  ancestors' ;  but  we 
profit  by  the  vast  mass  of  accepted,  tested,  and  recorded  information 
which  they  had  not." — Elton's  Life,  Vol.  II.  p.  224. 

2  The  Germ  Plasm :  A  Theory  of  Heredity,  by  August  Weismann, 
translated    by    Parker    and    Ronnfeldt    (W.    Scott,    189.'5).     Mendel's 
/Y/,M-<>/r.s-  of  Heredity,  by  W.  Bateson,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  V.M.H.   (Cam- 
bridge University  Press,  1909). 

36 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

hereditary  variations.  It  is  only  when  they  occur  in 
the  germ-plasm  itself  that  they  are  transmitted  to  the 
next  generation.  The  enormous  length  of  time  required 
for  such  variations  to  arise  is  inherent  in  Weismann's 
position,  but  also  follows  from  the  fact  that  there  is 
no  evidence  that  any  race  has  developed  any  hereditary 
physical  variation  in  the  course  of  its  recorded  history. 
The  evidence  is  all  in  the  other  direction.  It  seems 
reasonable,  therefore,  to  recognize,  with  Ratzel,  Weis- 
mann  and  Burt  alike,  that  historical  times,  at  any  rate, 
have  produced  no  alteration  in  the  intellectual  or  moral 
character  of  a  race  as  handed  down  by  heredity.  But 
that  alterations  of  the  most  Striking  character  have 
been  effected  is  a  truism.  These  changes,  are  easily 
explicable  upon  the  assumption  that,  while  the  national 
capacity  or  endowment  has  remained  unchanged,  the 
environment  has  been  constantly  modified,  and  the 
observed  changes  of  character  are  due  to  the  different 
results  produced  by  the  same  mental  factor  acting  upon 
different  environments. 


37 


CHAPTER  III 

The  racial  Fallacy  as  illustrated  in  Politicians  and  Historians  of  the 
present  Day — Mr.  Garvin  and  the  "  sea  Sense  "  of  the  English — 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  "  Differences  of  Blood  "  in  Ireland — Sir 
Wm.  Ridgeway  and  the  "  ancient  warlike  Instinct  "  of  the  Hima- 
layan and  Scottish  Highlanders — Lord  Acton  and  the  "  Levity  " 
and  "Inconstancy"  of  the  French  —  Dr.  Seton-Watson  and 
Roumania  as  ~"  racial  Link  with  Italy  and  France  " — "  The 
Roumanian  never  dies  " — Race  Consciousness  an  artificially  created 
Element  in  the  Environment,  often  due  to  false  Readings  of 
History — The  Absurdity  and  Impossibility  of  applying  "  Race  " 
as  a  Test  of  Nationality,  e.  g.  in  Turkey,  Macedonia,  and  the  Balkan 
States  generally. 

THE  scientific  or  philosophic  guise  of  the  lucubrations 
analysed  in  the  last  chapter  does  not  conceal  the  con- 
tradictions and  absurdities  in  which  the  devotee  of  the 
racial  fetish  is  involved.  His  most  solid  convictions 
crumble  at  a  touch;  and  to  retain  his  belief  in  his 
shibboleth  he  has  to  shut  his  eyes  to  facts  with  the 
unquestioning  fanaticism  of  a  primitive  idolater.  It 
is,  indeed,  difficult  to  refrain  from  impatient  words  in 
face  of  those  who  hold  the  racial  theory  of  nationality, 
because,  since  nationality  is  the  most  dominating 
practical  issue  of  the  present  day,  a  false  view  of  its 
origin  and  evolution  is  likely  to  be  fraught  with  the  most 
disastrous  issues  in  the  sphere  of  practical  politics.  It 
is  this  theory,  for  example,  adopted  by  the  German 
military  and  political  leaders  from  writers  like  Chamber- 
lain, which  has  proved  itself  so  dangerous  to  the  peace 
and  happiness  of  humanity.  Impatience,  perhaps,  is 
pardonable  in  one  who  raises  his  voice  against  so  mon- 
strous an  aberration  of  intelligence,  especially  when  he 
sees  daily  signs  that  the  statesmen  and  writers  of  his 
own  country  are,  through  pure  thoughtlessness,  not 
entirely  free  from  devotion  to  the  worship  of  this  fan- 
tastic and  impossible  fetish.  It  is  more  than  two 
generations  since  John  Stuart  Mill  expressed  the  opinion 

38 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

that  "  of  all  vulgar  modes  of  escaping  from  the  con- 
sideration of  the  effect  of  social  and  moral  influences  on 
the  human  mind,  the  most  vulgar  is  that  of  attribut- 
ing the  diversities  of  conduct  and  character  to  inherent 
natural  differences."     This  assertion  received  the   im- 
mediate and  cordial  assent  of  Buckle,1  who  was,  how- 
ever, perhaps  inclined  to  attach  too  much  importance 
to  the  operation  of  Climate,  Food,  and  Soil  in  producing 
the   admittedly   "  large   and   conspicuous   differences " 
existing  between  nations.     But  the  view  of  Mill  arid 
Buckle   has   not    been    generally   accepted.     Although 
there  have  been  written  in  English  some  few  important 
works  exposing  the  utter  fallaciousness  of  the  "  racial  " 
basis  of   nationality :   whilst  no    distinguished  British 
author  has  dedicated  himself  to  a  vindication  of  the 
racial  hypothesis :  there  has  been  no  widespread  recog- 
nition of  any  non-racial  view  of  nationality ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  opposing  theory  has  permeated  with  its 
influence  much  of  our  literature  and  politics,  and  even 
when  it  is  not  expressly  asserted  it  is  tacitly  admitted 
as  the  premiss  of  important  conclusions ;  and  that,  too, 
although  even  a  slight  analysis  often  shows  that  the 
premiss  and  the  conclusions  carry  with  them  their  own 
refutation.     It  will  be  readily  agreed  by  those  who  have 
any  acquaintance  with  the  subject  that  the  following 
examples,  chosen  almost  at  random  from  recent  contribu- 
tions to  social  or  political  criticism,  are  typical  of  the 
opinions  still  generally  held  in  Great  Britain  on  this  topic. 
Mr.  J.  L.  Garvin,  for  instance,  whose  brilliant  weekly 
sermons    in    the    Observer,  have,    nevertheless,    been, 
throughout  the  war,  a  perpetual  inspiration  to  a  sane  and 
self-sacrificing  patriotism,  has   furnished  a   few  quaint 
specimens   of    the    self-contradictions   inherent   in    the 
racial   hypothesis.2     Here  is   a  characteristic  example. 
After  an  eloquent  explanation  of  the  naval  greatness  of 
the  British  "  race  "  as  being  due  to  that  "  sea  sense  " 
which  is  the  natural  heritage  of  all  Britons  alike,  he  in- 
sists upon  the  necessity  of  placing  a  sailor  at  the  head 
of  the  Admiralty  because  a  sailor  alone  possesses  that 

1  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England,  Vol.  I.  p.  31  (Frowde's 
"  World's  Classics  "). 

2  Reference  unfortunately  missing.    Qy.  Observer  about  March  1917  ? 

39 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

"  sea  sense  "  which  has  just  been  bestowed  upon  lands- 
men and  sailors  alike.  The  refuting  self-contradiction 
might  have  been  spared  had  Mr.  Garvin  recalled  what 
another  great  Imperialist  had  said  about  the  origin  of 
our  maritime  power.  "  It  is  not  the  blood  of  the 
Vikings,"  wrote  Sir  J.  R.  Seeley,  "  that  makes  us  rulers 
of  the  sea,  nor  the  industrial  genius  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
that  makes  us  great  in  manufactures  and  commerce,  but 
a  much  more  special  circumstance,  which  did  not  arise 
till  for  many  centuries  we  had  been  agricultural  or 
pastoral,  warlike  and  indifferent  to  .the  sea."  *  Simi- 
larly, the  Prime  Minister  would  not  have  asserted  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  the  quarrel  between  Ulster 
and  Ireland  was  due  to  "  difference  of  blood  "  had  he 
remembered  the  known  historical  facts  as  to  the  great 
infusion  of  Norman  and  Saxon  elements  in  the  general 
population  of  Ireland,  and  the  circumstance  that  even 
so  long  ago  as  the  fourteenth  century  these  English 
elements  were  "  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves." 
But  if  journalists  and  politicians  writing  and  speaking 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment  may  be  pardoned  these 
lapses,  what  are  we  to  say  of  such  a  laborious  and 
erudite  author  as  Sir  Wm.  Ridgeway,  who,  in  a  work  so 
remote  from  our  present  political  excitements  as  his 
Early  Age  of  Greece,  frequently  shows  himself  as  reposing 
implicit  faith  in  the  racial  fantasy?  2  "  It  is,"  says  he, 
"  in  the  beautiful  valleys  of  the  Himalayas  that  are 
cradled  the  bold  tribes  who  cause  such  constant  trouble 
on  our  Indian  frontier.  An  ancient  law  of  their  nature 
compels  them  to  descend  into  the  rich  plains  of  Hindo- 
stan  to  make  swordland  of  them,  and  to  make  serfs  of 
the  ryots." — "  When  the  Highland  clans  could  no  longer 
with  impunity  harry  the  Lowlands  of  .Scotland,  they 
found  an  outlet  for  their  ancient  instinct  in  the  newly- 
formed  regiments  of  Highlanders,  and  so  the  tribesmen 
of  the  Himalayas  are  already  finding  an  outlet  for  their 
warlike  habits  in  the  ranks  of  our  Indian  army."  And, 
in  like  manner,  we  may  presume,  it  is  in  obedience  to  an 
ancient  law  of  their  nature,  and  by  way  of  an  outlet  for 

1  The  Expansion  of  England,  p.  87  (Macmillan,  1883). 

2  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  by  William  Ridgeway,  M.  A.     In  two  vols. 
(Cambridge  University  Press,  1901),  pp.  132-3. 

40 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

their  ancient  warlike  instinct,  that  the  Swiss  mercenaries 
whose  fighting  propensities  enliven  the  pages  of  Guic- 
ciardini  are  now  the  best  waiters  and  hotel-managers  in 
Europe  !  Even  Lord  Acton,  who  has  no  love  for  nation- 
ality, can  admit  the  racial  hypothesis  for  national 
character,  if  only  with  the  petulant  insincerity  of 
a  controversialist  who  will  employ  any  argument  to 
demolish-  an  opponent.  Attacking  Buckle's  view  that 
"original  distinctions  of  race  are  altogether  hypo- 
thetical "  as  a  "  great  absurdity,"  he  quotes  from 
Lasaulx  the  "  judgments  of  the  ancients  upon  the 
Gauls,"  their  levity  and  inconstancy,  their  love  of 
military  glory  and  their  desire  for  revolution,  and, 
imputing  these  qualities  to  the  French  nation  of  the 
present  day,  he  argues  from  this  purely  hypothetical 
identification  of  Gauls  with  Frenchmen  that  the 
qualities  of  the  former  have  descended  to  the  latter  as 
a  permanent  heritage  of  blood  and  race.1  He  is  entirely 
oblivious  of  the  large  Teutonic  and  other  intermixtures 
combining  in  the  modern  French ;  2  oblivious,  too,  of 
the  fact  that  the  French,  like  all  progressive  peoples, 
exhibit  different  characteristics  at  different  stages  of 
their  evolution.  This  fact  was  patent  to  any  student 
of  French  history  even  when  Lord  Acton  was  living; 
and  he,  unhappily,  did  not  survive  to  see  that  dramatic 
refutation  of  his  opinion  which  we  have  had  the  glory  of 
witnessing  in  the  Great  War,  when  the  very  children 
and  grandchildren  of  those  who  fought  in  1870  have 
displayed  national  characteristics  totally  different  from 
those  exhibited  in  the  earlier  struggle  against  Germany. 
Where  now  is  the  "  levity,"  the  "  inconstancy,"  of  the 
Gaul? 

1  Historical  Essays  and  Studies  (Macmillan,  1907),  p.  341. 

2  See  Finot  and  other  ethnologists  generally.     M.  Bergeret  is  but 
resuming  the  latest  ethnological  researches  when  he  says,  "  La  Gaule, 
quand  Cesar  y  entra,  etait  peuplee  de  Celtes,  de  Gaulois,  d'Iberes, 
differents  les  uns  des  autres  d'origine  et  de  religion. — Dans  ce  melange 
humaiii  les  invasions  verserent  des  Gennains,  des  Remains,  des  Sar- 
rasins." — Anatole   France,   L'Anneau  d'Amethi/ste,  p.   352  (Calmont- 
Levy).    "Language  is  independent  of  race.     Else  would  France  be  a 
Latin  nation,   whereas  it  is   Celtic,  Iberian,  and   Teutonic." — Folk- 
Memory  :   or  the  Continuity  of  British  Archaeology,  by  Walter  Johnson, 
F.G.S.  (Clarendon  Press,  1908),  p.  90. 

41 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Another  remarkable  example  of  the  way  in  which  the 
incubus  of  the  racial  fallacy  obsesses  the  imagination 
of  intelligent  men  has  been  quite  recently  provided  by 
Dr.  R.  W.  Seton-Watson,  and  that,  too,  in  a  sphere  of 
political  activity  where  this  particular  kind  of  false 
opinion  is  like  to  have  dangerous  results  in  practice. 
His  book  on  Roumania  and  the  Great  War1  opens  by 
quoting  the  popular  Roumanian  proverb  "Romanul  nu 
pere  "  ("The  Roumanian  never  dies"),  and  continues 
with  the  assertion  that  "  its  truth  has  been  established 
by  the  astonishing  vitality  displayed  by  the  Roumanian 
race  during  sixteen  centuries." — "She"  (Roumania)  "is 
the  sentinel  of  Latin  culture  in  the  east  of  Europe,  a 
racial  link  with  Italy  and  France  amid  a  world  of  alien 
peoples  " ;  and  he  states  quite  categorically  that  "  the 
modern  Roumanians  are  the  descendants  of  those 
Roman  colonists  whom  Trajan  planted  for  the  defence 
of  the  Empire  against  the  Northern  Barbarians." — 
"  Their  Latin  origin  is  obvious  to  any  one  who  walks 
through  the  streets  of  Bukharest ;  still  more  to  any  one 
who  visits  the  remoter  villages  of  Transylvania  and 
sees  the  pure  Roman  types  among  the  peasantry." 

It  is,  of  course,  quite  in  harmony  with  the  poetical 
and  imaginative  associations  of  the  racial  hypothesis 
that  the  careless  vaunt  of  a  popular  patriotism  should 
be  made  the  motto  of  an  historical  and  political  dis- 
cussion; nor  need  one  be  much  surprised  if  the  discus- 
sion partakes  of  the  character  of  the  motto.  That  the 
sentences  which  we  have  quoted  as  Dr.  Seton-Watson's 
expansion  of  the  meaning  of  the  catch-word  are  poetical 
and  imaginative,  might  be  supposed  even  from  his  own 
subsequent  statement  that  "  for  a  thousand  years " 
after  A.D.  270  "this  whole  tract  of  country  has  nothing 
which  can  be  even  remotely  described  as  history.  It 
can  boast  an  almost  unique  record  of  anarchy  and  chaos, 
with  practically  no  memorials  of  either  literature, 
architecture,  or  art.  The  whole  period  is  shrouded  in 
impenetrable  obscurity,  and  it  is  not  till  the  thirteenth 
century  that  the  veil  is  lifted.  By  that  time  we  find 
the  country  racially  what  it  is  to-day — Roumanian." 

1  Roumania  and  the  Great  War,  by  R.  W.  Seton-Watson,  D.Litt. 
(Constable  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  1915). 

42 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

But  surely  that  is  not  the  point  at  issue  :  what  the 
writer  really  concludes  from  his  remarkable  effort  in 
the  contemplation  of  impenetrable  obscurity  is,  not  that 
the  present-day  Roumanians  are  descended  from  the 
Roumanians  of  the  thirteenth  century,  but  that  the 
Roumanians  of  the  thirteenth  century  were  the  descen- 
dants of  Trajan's  colonists  in  the  second  century. 
That  this  is  his  actual  view  is  shown  by  the  theories 
he  mentions  to  explain  the  racial  continuity.  "  The 
one  view  is  that  the  native  population  preserved  its 
identity  virtually  unimpaired  through  a  thousand  years 
of  invasion  and  disturbance ;  the  other  that  the  popula- 
tion was  withdrawn  to  the  south  of  the  Danube,  re- 
mained there  for  a  thousand  years,  and  only  began  to 
return  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries." .  From 
other  writers  it  appears  that  the  withdrawal  was  a 
withdrawal  to  the  Carpathians  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
the  Balkans,  Rhodope  and  Pindus  on  the  other.  "  On 
these  heights,"  says-  Mdlle.  Stratilesco,  "  did  the 
Roumanian  nation  take  a  lasting  shape;  the  mountains 
are  the  creators  as  well  as  the  cradle  of  the  Roumanian 
nation." x  These  theories,  put  forward  by  the  rival 
political  parties  in  Transylvania,  the  Magyars  and  the 
Roumanians,  are  suspect  for  that  very  reason.  Mr. 
Samuelson,  in  his  Roumania :  Past  and  Present,  states, 
with  moderation  unusual  in  this  sphere,  that  "  the  bias 
exhibited  by  the  different  historians  makes  it  impossible 
to  arrive  at  any  just  conclusion  on  the  subject."  2  The 
tales,  moreover,  of  the  various  descents  made  from  the 
Carpathians  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
under  Radu  Negru,  "  the  chief  of  the  Daco-Roman 
colony  of  Fogaras,"  who  became  the  first  Voivode  of 
the  Roumanian  province  of  Wallachia,  and  by  Bogdan, 
or  Dragosh,  the  ruler  of  "a  colony  of  Daco-Roman 
descendants  at  Marmaros  or  Maramurish,"  who  simi- 
larly became  the  first  Voivode  of  the  sister  province  of 
Moldavia,  have  all  the  fragile  un substantiality  of 
popular  and  patriotic  legends,  and  cannot  be  made  the 

1  From  Carpathian  to  Pindus  :  Pictures  of  Roumanian  Country  Life 
by  Tereza  Stratilesco  (T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1906),  pp.  10-11. 

2  Roumania:  Past  and  Present,  by  James  Samuelson  (Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  1882). 

43 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

firm  basis  of  historical  conclusions.  Dr.  Seton-Watson 
himself  accepts  neither  theory  in  full,  while  admitting 
their  common  tribute  to  the  descent  of  Roumanians 
from  Romans. 

But  a  closer  examination  of  the  facts  shows  that 
neither  form  of  the  theory,  nor  both  of  them  together, 
will  support  the  conclusion  imposed  upon  it.  During 
Dr.  Seton-Watson's  thousand  years  of  "impenetrable 
obscurity"  successive  invasions  of  Goths,  Huns,  Slavs, 
Avars,  Lombards,  Hungarians,  and  other  peoples  had 
turned  the  whole  northern  part  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula 
into  a  veritable  sentina  gentium.  Frankly,  it  is  an 
impossible  supposition  that,  if  the  Daco-Romans  had 
remained  in  the  plains,  they  could  have  remained 
racially  unaffected  by  these  perpetual  admixtures  of 
foreign  elements.  If  the  "pure  Roman  strain  "  had 
survived  this  experience  in  Roumania,  it  had  there 
accomplished  a  miracle  which  it  had  achieved  in  no 
other  place  in  Europe  or  Asia  or  Africa.  It  is  j  even 
doubtful  whether  a  withdrawal  to  the  mountains  would 
have  preserved  the  strain  from  all  contamination.  But 
that  point  it  is  not  necessary  to  labour  in  face  of 
the  insistent  question  whether  there  was  actually  any 
"  pure  Roman  strain "  at  the  very  beginning  of 
Roumanian  history.  Does  not  all  the  available  evidence 
point  to  the  fact  that  Trajan's  army  consisted  of  legions 
drawn  from  every  part  of  the  Empire  ?  That  was  the 
case  with  the  Roman  army  of  occupation  in  Britain, 
as  shown  by  the  list  given  of  the  Roman  regiments 
stationed  on  the  Saxon  shore  of  Britain  in  the  Notitia 
Imperii,  put  together  about  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century;  and  even  a  glance  at  Caesar's  Commentaries 
proves  how  common,  and,  indeed,  how  natural  and 
inevitable,  was  the  practice  of  using  foreign  auxiliaries 
in  the  Roman  army.  It  is  not  without  significance 
in  this  connexion  that  one  of  the  Roman  cohorts 
subsequently  stationed  in  Britain  was  the  Prima  ^Elia 
Dacorum,  recruited,  no  doubt,  from  native  Dacians  who 
had  submitted  to  Roman  military  discipline.  Part  of 
Trajan's  army  was  probably  drawn  from  Italy;  but 
what  share  had  the  general  population  of  Italy  in  the 
"  pure  Roman  strain  "  either  then  or  at  any  other  time? 

44 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Even  if  the  Roman  conquest  of  Dacia  had  been  followed 
by  a  settlement  restricted  to  the  soldiers  of  the  army 
of  occupation,  the  colony  would,  so  far  as  blood  was 
concerned,  have  had  a  cosmopolitan  rather  than  a  Roman 
or  even  Italian  character.  But  we  have  it  on  the 
respectable  authority  of  Eutropius  x  that  Trajan,  after 
the  conquest  of  Dacia,  had  transported  thither  an 
infinite  host  of  people  from  the  whole  of  the  Roman 
world.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  in  A.D.  270,  as 
Eutropius  also  tells  us,  the  Emperor  Aurelian  "  with- 
drew the  Romans  from  the  cities  and  fields  of  Dacia 
and  settled  them  in  mid-Moesia,"  i.  e.  modern  Serbia, 
leaving  in  Dacia,  as  Gibbon  says,  only  "  a  considerable 
number  of  degenerate  Romans  who  dreaded  exile  more 
than  a  Gothic  master."  2  These  considerations,  without 
praying  in  aid  the  view  of  Carra,  that  Dacia  was 
colonized  by  the  "  scum  of  the  principal  towns  of 
Ureece  and  the  Roman  Empire  " ; 3  or  Freeman's,  that 
the  Roumanians  represent,  "  not  specially  Dacians  or 
Roman  colonists  in  Dacia,  but  the  great  Thracian  race 
generally  " ;  4  or  Mr.  Brailsford's,  that  "  Trajan's  colonies 
in  the  Danubian  provinces,  to  which  the  Roumans  of 
Roumania  love  to  trace  their  origin,  were  drawn  from 
every  quarter  of  the  Roman  world — save  Italy  "  5 — these 
considerations  are  sufficient  to  suggest  serious  limita- 
tions to  the  modern  Roumanian's  pride  in  his  pure 
Roman  breed.  And,  further,  what  reason  is  there  to 
suppose  that  the  "  Roman  "  settlers  did  not  "  mingle 
their  blood  "  with  that  of  the  native  Dacians,  Getans, 
or  Thracians,  or  whatever  they  might  have  been  ? 
Mdlle.  Stratilesco,  at  any  rate,  says  the  Dacians  and  the 
colonists  were  "  thoroughly  mixed,"  6  thus  forming  a 
mingled  strain,  a  "  various  colony,"  as  Gibbon  calls 
it,  which,  even  in  Roman  times.,  blended  with  its  bar- 

1  Book  VIII.  chap.  vi. :  "  Trajanus,  victa  Dacia,  ex  toto  orbe  Romano 
infinitas  eo  copias  hominum  transtulerat,  ad  agros  et  urbes  colendas." 

2  Gibbon,  Chap.  XL 

3  Quoted  by  Samuelson,  Eoumania :  Past  and  Present. 

4  Ottoman  Power  in  Europe,  p.  31   (quoted  by  Marriott,  Eastern 
Question,  p.  44). 

5  Macedonia ;    Its  Races  and  their  Future,   by  H.   N.   Brailsford 
(Methuen  &  Co.,  1906),  p.  180. 

.   6  From  Carpathian  to  Pindm. 

45 


RA€E   AND   NATIONALITY 

I 

barian  conquerors,  the  Goths,  and  "  claimed  the  fancied 
honour  of  a  Scandinavian  origin,"  *  thus  establishing  the 
right  of  modern  Roumania,  if  we  may  paraphrase 
Dr.  Seton-Watson,  to  be  "  a  sentinel  of  Teutonic  culture 
in  the  east  of  Europe,  a  racial  link  with  Germany  and 
Norway  amid  a  world  of  alien  peoples."  So  little  purity 
had  the  strain  at  its  first  appearance  in  Dacia,  whatever 
changes  it  may  or  may  not  have  undergone  under  the 
ethnographical  inundations  of  two  thousand  years  ! 

And  then  as  to  the  "  pure  Roman  types  "  among 
the  peasantry;  what,  we  may  ask,  is  a  "pure  Roman 
type "  ?  Is  it  the  type  of  Julius,  or  Augustus,  or 
Tiberius,  or  Li  via,  or  Julia,  or  Agrippina,  or  of  any 
of  the  Roman  portrait  busts  in  the  famous  gallery  at 
the  British  Museum?  The  author  runs  the  risk  of 
provoking  a  shudder  among  the  race-worshippers  when 
he  remarks  that  the  chief  thing  which  has'struck  him  in 
looking  at  this  great  assembly  of  Roman  figures  is  how 
particularly  English  they  are  in  feature  and  expressftm. 
Give  Julius  a  frock-coat  and  silk  hat  and  he  would  be 
Lord  Morley;  Tiberius  a  wig  and  he  would  be  Boling- 
broke  or  Shaftesbury;  Augustus  a  starched  ruff  and 
flowing  robes  and  Lord  Burleigh  would  leap  to  life; 
while  Titus  Flavius  Vespasianus  is  clearly  Lord  Hals- 
bury  ;  and  Caracalla's  profile  could  not  be  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  Australian  soldier  who  was  looking 
at  him  when  the  writer  paid  a  recent  visit  to  this  imperial 
company.  Travellers,  too,  have  noticed  "  unmistak- 
ably Roman  countenances  "  in  Serbia,2  and  a  willing  eye 
can  see  them  in  every  part  of  the  European  world. 
But  Serbians  do  not  claim  to  be  "a  racial  link  with 
France  "  on  that  ground,  or  on  the  equally  valid  ground 
that  they,  too,  were  a  Roman  colony,  actually  giving 
hospitality  to  Aurelian's  exiles  from  Dacia,  or  on  the  still 
more  reasonable  pretext  that  large  bodies  of  Gawls 
settled  in  Moesia  after  the  defeat  of  Brennus  in  277  B.C. 

Thus  we  see  that  so  far  from  the  "  Roumanian  race  " 
never  perishing  it  never  really  existed  at  all.  But,  as 

1  Gibbon,  Chap.  XL 

*  e.  g.  the  Rev.  W.  Denton,  who  saw  one  in  a  cowherd,  "  inherited 
from  his  fathers,  the  old  masters  of  the  world  "  (Servia  and  the  Servians. 
London  :  Bell  &  Daldy,  1862). 

46 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

a  matter  of  cold  historical  fact,  great  crowds  of  Rouman- 
ians have,  indeed,  perished,  if  by  perishing  is  meant 
the  losing  of  their  national  identity  in  the  national 
identity  of  another  people.  When,  in  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century,  the  Hungarians  conquered  the  whole 
of  the  Carpathian  plateau  (Transylvania),  the  Rouman- 
ians, as  part  of  the  crumbling  Bulgarian  Empire,  shared 
in  the  struggle  against  them,  "  and  some  of  them  were 
scattered  as  far  as  the  mountains  of  Moravia,  where  a 
remnant  of  them  is  to  be  met  with  to-day,  entirely 
Slavisized."  (Mdlle.  Stratilesco's  word).  At  this  time 
also,  as  Mdlle.  Stratilesco  tells  us,  "many  of  the 
(Roumanian)  nobility  passed  over  to  the  conqueror, 
and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Roumanian  blood  gave 
Hungary  her  greatest  general,  Joan  Corvin  de  Huniade, 
and  her  greatest  King,  Mathias  Corvin,  son  of  the 
former.1  Many  of  the  Roumanian  chiefs,  in  order  to 
preserve  their  wealth  and  their  privileges — or  to  obtain 
some  more — passed  over  to  tl\e  conqueror,  accepted 
her  language  and  religion,  and  were  Magyarized."  In 
Istria,  too,  "  there  is  a  still  larger  number  of  Roumanians 
settled  down,  especially  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Peninsula,  on  the  slopes  of  Monte  Maggiore.  These  also 
have  been  Slavisized  "  (again  Mdlle.  Stratilesco's  word). 
Even  the  few  thousand  left  are  "  fatally  marked  for 
death  under  strong  pressure  of  Slav  influence."  Mdlle. 
Stratilesco  also  speaks  of  the  "  danger  of  Slavicization  " 
to  which  the  Roumanians  of  the  Bukovina  were  sub- 
jected by  the  powerful  Slav  element  introduced  thither 
from  Galicia  when,  previous  to  1849,  it  was  in  union 
with  that  province.  And  elsewhere  the  story  of  destruc- 
tion is  the  same;  but  still  Mdlle.  Stratilesco,  with  a 
pride  perhaps  pardonable  in  a  patriotic  Roumanian,  if 
not  in  an  English  historian,  indulges  in  the  irrepressible 
vaunt  of  "  Romanul  nu  pere." 

And,  indeed,  if  only  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  were 
turned  from  "  blood  "  to  "  tradition,"  from  "  race  "  to 
"  culture,"  its  truth  need  not  be  rejected  by  reasonable 
people.  Apart  from  the  language,  about  which  we  shall 
have  something  to  say  shortly,  there  are  indubitable 

1  We  leave  these  famous  names  in  the  form  which  Mdlle.  Stratilesco 
gives  them. 

47 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

indications  in  Roumanian  social  and  religious  and 
political  life  suggesting  a  continuous  tradition  from  the 
days  of  the  Roman  colony.  If  the  Roumanians  of 
Transylvania  and  of  Roumania  proper,  which  admit- 
tedly share  a  common  tradition  and  a  common  culture 
now  some  eight  centuries  old,  could  be  Shown  to  trace 
that  common  culture  for  a  thousand  years  still  earlier, 
their  claims  to  national  union  would  be  strengthened, 
and  they  would  have  a  more  legitimate  cause  for  national 
pride  than  all  the  fancied  ties  of  common  race.  Even 
when  a  people  merges  its  identity  in  another  people  its 
culture  may  continue,  forming  a  nucleus  around  which 
may  grow  the  traditions  and  cultures  of  many  com- 
mingling peoples.  And  when  in  such  a  case  the 
original  language  survives,  the  strangers  who  adopt  it 
come  within  the  influence  of  the  institutions,  customs, 
manners,  etc.,  which  necessarily  form  the  subjects  of 
language  even  in  the  absence  of  a  written  literature,  and 
the  original  tradition  is  maintained,  and  even  strength- 
ened and  enriched,  by  the  traditional  culture  of  the 
newcomers.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  fallacious  as  a  test 
of  identity  of  race  than  identity  of  language.  It  might 
reasonably  be  argued  that  if  purity  of  speech  meant 
purity  of  race,  a  corrupted  dialect  was  a  sign  of  corrupt 
descent;  and  ^neas  Sylvius  (Pope  Pius  II.,  1458) 
pointed  out  that  in  his  day  the  Roumanians  "  speak  the 
Roman  language  so  mutilated  that  an  Italian  can  hardly 
understand  them."  But  that  the  Roumanian  language 
has  been  the  main  instrument  in  continuing  the  tradi- 
tion with  which  it  was  first  associated  will  probably  be 
agreed  by  all  political  parties  alike;  and  the  true  line 
of  connexion  between  the  Roumanians  of  the  present 
day  and  the  Daco-Romans  of  the  second  century  lies  in 
continuity  of  language  and  the  tradition  it  embodies 
and  is  associated  with,  and  not  in  race.  The  power  of 
tradition  and  environment  in  fostering  nationality  is 
implicitly  and  most  forcibly  admitted  by  the  racial 
apologists  of  nationality,  inasmuch  as  their  efforts  have 
been  directed  to  strengthen  race-consciousness,  which, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  is  itself  an  influence  of  the 
environment.  It  is  not  race  itself  which  is  a  factor  in 
national  development,  but  a  sense  of  the  unity  of 

48 


purpose  springing  from  fancied  unity  of  race;  and,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  national  consciousness  of  Roumania 
was  largely  inspired  and  guided  by  the  efforts  of  Rou- 
manian exiles  in  Paris  who,  from  1848  onwards,  taught 
to  Roumanians  the  lesson  of  national  freedom  they  had 
learned  in  Western  Europe.  Whether  national  unity  is 
more  likely  to  be  fostered  by  false  views  of  history,  based 
upon  the  outworn  creeds  of  race,  or  by  a  study  of  the 
development  of  that  historical  continuity  actually 
existing  through  nearly  2000  years,  is  surely  a  matter 
which  needs  no  argument  to  settle.  National  pride, 
at  any  rate,  has  a  surer  and  more  legitimate  basis  in 
continuity  of  tradition  than  in  continuity  of  racial 
descent;  and  the  claim  of  the  Roumanian  to  be 
descended  from  the  Roman  would  not  be  vitiated  in 
the  slightest  degree  were  there  not  a  single  drop  of 
Roman  blood  in  either  Wallachia  or  Moldavia.  The 
golden  thread  of  Latin  culture,  commingled  and  en- 
folded with  strands  from  other  looms,  stretches  to  him 
in  unbroken  continuity  from  the  time  of  Trajan  and  the 
Antonines,  and  the  fact  that  for  nearly  2000  years  suc- 
cessive generations  of  men  have  laboured  in  the  same 
task  as  that  committed  to  him,  the  duty  of  handing 
down  the  tradition,  improved  if  possible,  but  not  debased, 
to  his  successors,  is  a  nobler  theme  for  patriotic  pride 
than  the  purest  descent  with  its  ancestral  bequest  of 
unvarying  racial  characteristics. 

"  Bona  nee  sua  quisque  recuset :  , 

Nam  genus  et  proavos  et  quae  npn  fecimus  ipsi 
Vix  ea  nostra  voco."  l 

It  is  what  the  representatives  of  this  Roman  tradition 
have  achieved  from  century  to  century  that  has  brought 
under  the  Roumanian  name  the  innumerable  peoples 
who  have  felt  the  potent  contact  ol  its  culture.  The 
finer  spirits  among  Roumanian  patriots  have  them- 
selves been  exponents  of  this  view.  Speaking  in  the 
year  1858,  Cogalniceanu,  the  Moldavian  statesman, 
said,  "  We  "  (the  Moldavians)  "  have  the  same  origin  as 
our  brothers"  (of  Wallachia);  "the  same  name  and 

1  Ovid  Meia.  XIII.  139. 
E  49 


language,  the  same  faith  and  history,  the  same  institu- 
tions, laws,  and  customs ;  we  share  the  same  hopes  and 
fears ;  the  same  frontiers  are  placed  under  our  care.  In 
the  past  we  have  suffered  the  same  griefs,  and  we  now 
have  to  assure  for  ourselves  the  same  future."  This 
passage,  quoted  by  Dr.  Seton-Watson  himself,  gives  a 
much  sounder  exposition  of  nationality  than  that  which 
lays  exclusive  stress  upon  the  fancied  Roman  descent 
of  the  modern  Roumanian  people. 

These  considerations  will  serve  to  show  why  the 
writer  has  thought  it  necessary  to  clear  the  ground  of 
the  racial  fallacy  before  proceeding  to  suggest  a  more 
natural,  moral  and  reasonable  explanation  of  nationality 
and  national  character.  The  essence  of  the  racial 
theory,  especially  as  exhibited  by  writers  of  the  school 
of  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain,  is  profoundly  immoral, 
as  well  as  unnatural  and  irrational.  It  asserts  that, 
by  virtue  of  belonging  to  a  certain  "  race,"  every  in- 
dividual member  of  it  possesses  qualities  which  inevit- 
ably destine  him  to  the  realization  of  certain  ends; 
in  the  case  of  the  German  the  chief  end  being  universal 
dominion,  all  other  "  races  "  being  endowed  with  quali- 
ties which  as  inevitably  destine  them  to  submission  and 
slavery  to  German  ideals  and  German  masters.  This 
essentially  foolish  and  immoral  conception  has  been  the 
root-cause  of  that  diseased  national  egotism  whose 
exhibition  during  the  war  has  been  at  once  the  scorn 
and  the  horror  of  the  civilized  world;  but  even  in  the 
light  of  that  exhibition  the  writer  is  glad  that  he  has 
no  word  to  add  to  the  criticisms  he  applied  to  the  theory 
before  it  had  received  so  monstrous  an  apocalypse. 

The  view  here  advocated,  therefore,  is  that  "race"  as 
a  constituent  element  in  nationality  is  a  purely  subjec- 
tive emotion ;  a  view  already  hinted  at  by  Seeley  when, 
in  his  analysis  of  nationality,  he  gave  as  one  of  its  "  unit- 
ing forces  "  "  community  of  race,  or,  rather,  the  belief 
in  a  community  of  race"  *  The  effects  of  a  belief  are 
not  dependent  upon  its  validity;  and  no  one  can  deny 
that  this  belief,  like  others  equally  false,  has  been  pro- 
ductive, and  is  still  productive  to-day,  of  the  most  far- 
reaching  results.  It  is  quite  easy  to  recognize  that  this 
1  The  Expansion  of  England,  p.  220  (1st  edition). 
50 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

subjective  belief  may  have  an  influence  upon  national 
action  as  great  as  that  imputed  to  the  direct  operation 
of  race  as  an  hereditary  force.  But  that  it  is  not  an 
hereditary  force  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  strangers 
admitted  into  the  bosom  of  a  community  soon  participate 
in  all  the  emotions  of  patriotic  interest  felt  by  the  native 
inhabitants.  The  foreign  origin  of  the  newcomers  is 
often  forgotten  by  their  descendants,  who  become  proud 
of  their  "  racial  descent  "  from  a  long -established  native 
family ;  and  that,  too,  before,  upon  any  theory  of  racial 
heredity,  a  new  strain  of  patriotism  can  have  found  its 
way  into  the  blood  of  the  immigrant  line.  The  practical 
value  of  "  race  "  is  purely  subjective  :  it  is  an  emotion 
like  that  of  the  soldier  who  is  proud  of  his  regiment's 
history,  not  because  he  is  descended  from  its  earliest 
members,  but  because  he  feels  that  he  belongs  to  the 
same  regiment  as  they  did ;  organic  continuity  of  common 
interest  is  the  basis  of  the  life  of  a  regiment  as  of  all 
forms  of  social  development.  What  soldier  of  the 
present  day  could  believe  that  his  military  virtues  had 
descended  to  him  from  the  blood  of  the  gaol-sweepings 
and  social  riff-raff  who  were  enlisted  in  many  of  the  great 
regiments  of  the  early  eighteenth  century?  "Com- 
munity of  race  "  obtains  its  force,  not  from  any  objective 
value  as  a  scientific  factor  in  national  life,  but  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  a  belief  imbibed  from  so  many  sentimental 
sources  in  history,  literature  and  tradition.  Race  as  an 
ideal  conception  has  become  part  of  the  environing 
tradition  which  moulds  national  character.  The  belief 
in  it  as  an  objective  influence  transmitted  in  the  blood 
is  an  interesting  but  perverted  recognition  of  continuity 
of  common  interest  as  the  effective  force  which  produces 
nationality.  The  danger  is  that  it  should  be  perverted 
so  far  as  to  endeavour  to  force  into  common  national 
organizations  peoples  claimed  as  belonging  to  the  same 
race,  but  separated  by  different  institutions,  different 
laws  and  customs,  different  hopes  and  fears,  different 
sympathies  and  different  hates.  There  is  hardly,  for 
example,  one  of  the  numerous  volumes  dealing  with 
the  Balkan  States  or  with  Austria  which  does  not  contain 
dangerous  examples  of  this  fallacy.  But  as  we  have 
already  noted  the  difficulty,  nay,  indeed,  the  impossible 

51 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

absurdity,  involved  in  applying  the  racial  solution  to 
the  question  of  Roumanian  nationality,  so  the  same 
difficulty,  impossibility  and  absurdity  haunt  the  racial 
fetish  in  all  its  manifestations  in  Balkan  politics.  In 
Turkey,  as  Mr.  Brailsford  points  out,  the  supremacy  of 
the  ruling  classes  rests,  not  upon  race,  but  on  religion.1 
The  conquering  Osmanli  Turks  have  few  descendants 
among  the  dominant  ranks,  which  are  mostly  composed 
of  converted  Slavs  and  Albanians.  Mr.  Brailsford  tells 
of  a  young  Turkish  officer  he  met  who  was  of  Greek 
descent  and  yet  politically  "  Turkish  of  the  Turks," 
ineradicably  stamped  with  the  Turkish  tradition  of 
ascendancy.  This  instance  recalls  that  of  Ali  Pacha, 
the  famous  governor  of  Jannina,  who  claimed  descent 
from  Pyrrhus  of  Epirus,  and  had  his  own  private  Homer 
to  sing  his  deeds  in  modern  Greek  verse ;  and  both  he 
and  his  Homer  were  Albanians,  although  Turks  and 
Moslems.  No  wonder  that  the  fez,  once  the  distinctive 
headgear  of  the  Greek,  is  now  the  symbol  of  patriotic 
Turkish  loyalty  ! 

In  Macedonia  the  instability  of  "  race  "  is  notorious, 
nationality,  that  is,  "  race,"  being  the  result  of  "  propa- 
ganda "  either  educational  or  military.  The  innumer- 
able Balkan  invasions  have  not  left  Macedonia  unvisited, 
and  no  one  of  the  competing  Balkan  Powers  who  strive 
for  ascendancy  there  has  yet  been  able  efficiently  to 
impress  its  own  "  race  "  distinctions  upon  the  Mace- 
donians, although  Greeks,  Serbians,  Bulgarians  and 
Roumanians  have  been  more  or  less  successful  in  that 
direction,  according  to  the  weight  of  their  arm  or  the 
depth  of  their  purse.  In  1906  Roumania  was  spending 
600,000  francs  in  propaganda  of  various  descriptions, 
a  financial  method  of  imposing  nationality  which  receives 
its  appropriate  comment  in  the  remark  of  a  French 
consul  who  declared  that  "  with  a  million  francs  he  would 
make  all  Macedonia  French."  "  A  hundred  years  ago," 
says  Mr.  Brailsford,  "  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find 
a  Central  Macedonian  who  could  have  answered  with 
any  intelligence  the  question  whether  he  were  Servian 
or  Bulgarian  by  race." — "  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find 
fathers  who  are  themselves  officially  '  Greeks '  equally 
1  Macedonia :  Its  Races  and  their  Future. 
52 


proud  of  bringing  into  the  world  '  Greek,'  '  Servian,^ 
4  Bulgarian,'  and  '  Roumanian  '  children." — "  '  Is  your 
village  Greek  or  Bulgarian  ?  '  '  Well,  it  is  Bulgarian 
now,  but  four  years  ago  it  was  Greek.' '  The  Vlachs  of 
Macedonia  attract  Roumanian  attention  on  the  ostensible 
ground  that  they  share  the  Roman  descent  of  their 
patrons;  but,  like  the  Roumanians  themselves,  they 
rapidly  lose  their  national  characteristics  when  they 
leave  their  native  mountains  and  settle  in  the  plains, 
being  there  easily  merged  in  the  peoples  who  surround 
them.  Metzovo,  the  chief  Vlach  village,  is  more  Greek 
than  Vlach,  owing  to  the  generosity  of  one  of  its  natives, 
George  Averoff,  whose  birth  was  Vlach,  whose  name  was 
Slav,  and  whose  education  was  Greek.1 

These  examples,  which  could  be  multiplied  ad  infinitum, 
not  only  in  Turkey  and  Macedonia,  but  in  Serbia,  Rou- 
mania,  Bulgaria  and  Austria,  sufficiently  illustrate  the 
folly  of  attempting  to  determine  political  divisions  by 
means  of  racial  distinctions,  and  it  should  be  one  of  the 
aims  of  constructive  international  statesmanship,  now 
that  the  war  is  over,  to  avoid  the  disasters  to  which  a 
blind  adherence  to  community  of  race,  in  preference  to 
organic  continuity  of  common  interest,  would  inevitably 
lead. 

1  The  Nomads  of  the  Balkans :  An  Account  of  Life  and  Customs 
among  the  Vlachs  of  Northern  Pindus,  by  A.  J.  B.  Wace,  M.A.,  and  M.  S^. 
Thompson,  M.A.  (Methuen  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  1914). 


53 


CHAPTER  IV 

Race  a  metaphysical  Conception,  having  no  Foundation  in  practical 
Life — The  Jews  oft  quoted  as  owing  their  mental  Characteristics 
to  Race — German  Imperialists  and  the  Jews :  Houston  Stewart 
Chamberlain — The  so-called  racial  Qualities  of  the  Jew  due  to 
Environment :  the  Assimilation  of  the  Jews — Their  successful 
Adoption  of  "  foreign  "  Characteristics — The  alien  and  oriental 
"  English  Gentleman  " — The  French  Nationalists  and  the  Jew — 
Maurice  Barres — The  Jew  as  Patriot — Nationality,  again,  not 
founded  on  Race,  but  on  Experience — To  what  Principle  of 
Experience  is  Nationality  to  be  assigned  ? 

THE  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  if  we  could  treat  Race 
from  the  abstract  point  of  view,  putting  it  into  that 
metaphysical  world  of  the  schoolmen  in  which  any  old 
a  priori  notion  is  true  if  it  i£  at  once  simple  and  self- 
consistent,  nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  form  a 
Theory  of  Race  as  satisfying  to  the  intellect,  and  as 
irreconcilable  with  the  real  world,  as  any  idealistic 
system  of  philosophy  from  Plato  to  Hegel,  from  Berke- 
ley to  Bergson.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  quite  easy  to 
conceive  of  a  number  of  distinct  races,  each  physically 
and  intellectually  possessed  of  a  different  ensemble  of 
powers,  each  generation  handing  down  unaltered  to 
its  successors  the  sacred  gift  of  racial  solidarity  and 
exclusiveness,  and  all  the  generations  alike  shunning 
blood  mixture  with  the  contemporaneous  generations 
of  any  other  race.  The  conception  is  quite  easy,  and 
one  could  as  easily  build  up  a  whole  complete  universe 
out  of  the  conception ;  a  universe  which  would  have  its 
own  laws  and  would  be  true  to  them;  a  simple,  self- 
consistent  universe,  as  simple  and  self-consistent  as 
Plato's  doctrine  of  Anamnesis  and  as  remote  from 
tangible  or  demonstrable  fact.  For  such  a  conception 
could  not  be  fitted  in  with  the  actual  phenomena  of 
race  as  we  know  them  in  the  everyday  world  of  ex- 
perience. Everywhere  we  find  an  inextricable  jumble 
of  meeting  and  mingling  elements  from  different  racial 
sources ;  everywhere  we  find  that  "  chaos  oi  the  Peoples  " 

54 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

which  one  of  the  most  convinced  advocates  of  "  Race  " 
would  have  us  believe  was  confined  to  the  Mediterranean 
lands  at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era.1 
Whenever  the  attempt  is  made  to  talk  about  the  ab- 
stract "  Race  "  as  if  it  existed  in  the  actual  world,  we 
are  faced  by  contradictions  and  tripped  up  by  absurdi- 
ties which  now,  as  in  Plato's  time,  are  the  fate  of  the 
philosopher  whose  eyes  are  in  the  clouds  what  time  his 
feet  lead  him  into  the  pit.  The  conception  of  Race,  as 
such,  is  utterly  incapable  of  explaining  human  develop- 
ment; utterly  incapable  of  explaining  national  charac- 
ter; utterly  incapable  of  explaining  any  phenomenon 
of  nationality.  If,  however,  we  substitute  for  this 
metaphysical  abstraction — the  product  of  a  foolish  and 
spurious  patriotism  "  moving  about  in  worlds  not 
realized  " — if  we  substitute  for  this  the  conception  of 
that  organic  continuity  of  common  interest  which  is 
based  upon  the  recognition  of  hard  historical  data,  we 
find  ourselves  at  once  in  a  position  to  explain  with 
clearness  much  in  the  growth  of  nations  which  would 
otherwise  be  obscure  or  totally  inexplicable. 

Is  there  a  single  intellectual  or  moral  quality  which 
can  be  satisfactorily  explained  as  the  gift  of  a  special 
race  to  its  people  ?  If  so,  why  do  not  all  the  members 
of  the  race  possess  it  equally  ?  Why  do  some  not  possess 
it  at  all  ?  Is  there  a  single  intellectual  or  moral  quality 
specially  marking  a  people  which  cannot  be  explained  as 
the  gift  of  environment  to  that  people?  If  there  is, 
why  do  representatives  of  different  racial  elements  in 
the  same  people  exhibit  the  same  intellectual  and  moral 
qualities  to  such  a  degree  that  no  one  would  suspect 
the  existence  of  difference  of  race?  Why  do  Jews 
exhibit  those  specially  English  qualities  which  make 

1  Die  Grundlagen  des  Neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  von  Houston 
Stewart  Chamberlain,  translated  into  English  by  John  Lees,  M.A., 
D.Lit.  (Edin.),  under  the  title  of  The  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  (London  :  John  Lane,  1911),  Vol.  I.  pp.  254  sqq.  The  severity 
of  this  criticism  of  Chamberlain — if  severe  it  be — is  not  due  to  feeling 
excited  by  the  war.  It  was  wholly  written  before  the  war,  and  is  based 
entirely  on  the  study  of  his  works.  The  writer,-  he  must  add,  finds 
himself  completely  out  of  sympathy  with  that  form  of  criticism  which 
pleases  popular  prejudice  by  calling  Chamberlain  a  "renegade  "  because 
he  did  not  in  war  desert  a  country  which  he  had  adopted  in  peace. 

55 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

them  British  Prime  Ministers  and  Lord  Chief  Justices  ? 
The  case  of  the  Jews  is  so  often  quoted  as  finally  settling 
the  question  of  Race  in  a  sense  against  that  advocated  in 
these  pages,  that  the  author  has  no  alternative  but  to 
deal  with  it  from  his  point  of  view.  And  he  is  quite 
willing  to  stand  or  fall  by  it  as  an  experimentum  crucis. 

But  even  if  that  were  not  so,  the  Jewish  question,  as 
a  matter  of  practical  politics,  is  so  interwoven  with  the 
assumptions  of  the  racial  extremists,  both  in  France 
and  in  Germany,  not  to  speak  of  Russia  and  Austria, 
that  it  would  be  quite  impossible  for  any  student  of 
modern  nationality  to  pass  it  in  silence.  In  Germany 
Herr  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain,  and  in  France 
M.  Maurice  Barres,  have  made  themselves  protagonists 
in  great  and  widespread  agitations  against  the  Jew  as 
a  racial  enemy  of  the  civilizations  of  their  countries. 
Herr  Chamberlain,  the  apostle  of  Race  in  Germany,  is 
of  a  distinguished  English  family  by  birth,  but  he  has 
so  identified  himself  with  the  habits,  fashions  and 
methods  of  his  German  environment  as  to  be,  in  his 
own  person,  a  most  striking  proof  of  the  falsity  of  his 
own  views.  His  monumental  work  on  the  Founda- 
tions of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  which  has  enjoyed 
enormous  popularity  in  Germany,  was  translated  into 
English  early  in  the  century,  and  Lord  Redesdale 
wrote  a  eulogistic  preface  to  the  translation.  The  chief 
characteristic  of  Chamberlain's  social  politics  is  hatred 
of  the  Jew,  whom  he  regards  as  the  enemy  par  excellence 
of  the  German  Race,  in  which,  with  that  generous 
opulence  of  imagination  which  characterizes  the  world 
of  Romance  and  Metaphysics  alike,  he  includes  the 
Celts  and  the  Slavs.  These  belong  to  "  one  definite 
race  of  men,  the  Teutonic,"  for  "  under  this  designation 
I  embrace  the  various  portions  of  the  one  great  North - 
European  race,  whether  *  Teutonic  '  in  the  narrower 
Tacitean  meaning,  or  Celts,  or  genuine  Slavs."  l — "  Our 
civilization  and  culture,  as  in  every  previous  and  every 
contemporary  case,  are  the  work  of  a  definite,  individual 
racial  type,  a  type  possessing,  like  everything  individual, 

1  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  Intro.,  p.  67.  The  "  genuine 
Slavs,"  it  appears  from  Vol.  II.  p.  197,  are  those  alone  who  are 
descended  from  the  "  ancient  Teutons  "  ! 

56 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

great  gifts,  but  also  insurmountable  limitations."  l 
With  this  "  race  "  and  this  "  race  "  alone  is  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world;  all  [the  really  "great"  men  who 
have  done  anything  worth  doing  have  belonged  to  it; 
even  Jesus  must,  if  possible,  be  proved  an  "  Aryan,"  or, 
at  any  rate,  a  non-Jew.2  It  is  quite  easy  to  tell  whether 
a  person  belongs  to  this  race  or  not;  quite  easy  for 
himself  and  quite  easy  for  others.  He  has  a  subjective 
consciousness  amounting  to  certitude :  "  The  man  who 
belongs  to  a  distinct,  pure  race,  never  loses  the  sense  of 
it  "  :  it  is  the  "  guardian  angel  of  his  lineage,"  3  and  he 
possesses  certain  physical  characteristics  which  are 
practically  those  of  the  Tacitean  "  Germans." — "  Who- 
ever does  not  possess  these  physical  characteristics,  no 
matter  though  he  were  born  in  the  very  heart  of  Ger- 
mania,  speaking  a  Germanic  tongue  from  childhood, 
cannot  be  regarded  as  genuinely  Germanic." 4  The 
physical  signs  of  "  race  "  are  sometimes  perceptible  to 
small  children — "  Very  small  children,  especially  girls, 
frequently  have  quite  a  marked  instinct  for  race.  It 
frequently  happens  that  children  who  have  no  concep- 
tion of  what  '  Jew  '  means,  or  that  there  is  any  such 
thing  in  the  world,  begin  to  cry  as  soon  as  a  genuine 
Jew  or  Jewess  comes  near  them.  The  learned  can 
frequently  not  tell  a  Jew  from  a  non-Jew;  the  child 
that  scarcely  knows  how  to  speak  notices  the  difference. 
Is  not  "  (the  writer  really  must  quote  a  few  more  lines 
of  tKis  delicious  prattle)  "  is  not  that  something  ?  To 
me  it  Seems  worth  as  much  as  a  whole  anthropological 
congress,  or  at  least  a  whole  speech  by  Professor  Koll- 
mann.  There  is  still  something  in  the  world  besides 
compass  and  yard  measure.  Where  the  learned  fails 
with  his  artificial  constructions,  one  single  unbiased 
glance  can  illumine  the  truth  like  a  sunbeam."  5 

1  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  Intro.,  p.  68. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  211 :  "  Whoever  makes  the  assertion  that  Christ  was  a  Jew 
is  either  ignorant  or/ insincere."     Cf.  Vol.  II.  p.  57:  "In  spite  of  all 
assertions,  it  remains  very  doubtful  whether  Paul  was  a  pure  Jew  by 
race."  3  Ibid.,  p.  269.  •  Ibid.,  p.  518-19. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  537.  Cf.  p.  538 :  Questions  of  race  are  to  be  settled  by 
"  the  eye  of  the  breeder  and  the  eye  of  the  child."  And  yet  this  man 
talks  about  "  the  threadbare  twaddle  of  ethical  societies  and  such- 
like "  (Vol.  II.  p.  135). 

57 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

We  have  quoted  this  passage  in  full  because  it  is  not 
only  typical  of  the  manner  in  which  Chamberlain  deals 
with  his  subject,  but  also  because  it  expressly  inculcates 
that  manner  as  the  right  one  to  adopt  towards  his 
subject.  The  passage  gives  a  capital  illustration  of  that 
childishness  which  Chamberlain  advocates  as  a  means  of 
truth  more  valuable  than  scientific  methods.  A  book 
written  in  this  style  can  have  no  positive  value  as  a 
discussion  of  social  phenomena,  and,  notwithstanding 
Lord  Redesdale's  extravagant  panegyric  of  its  author, 
we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  describing  it  as  one  of  the 
most  foolish  books  ever  written.'  It  is  false  in  its  theories ; 
ludicrously  inaccurate  in  its  assertions;  pompous  'and 
extravagant  in  its  style;  insolent  to  its  critics  and 
opponents.1  It  is  so  dominated  by  a  spirit  of  stormy 
rhetoric  that  it  contradicts  itself  with  passion  at  every 
turn.  It  asserts  as  dogmas  fancies  of  whose  futility 
the  author  would  have  been  aware  even  had  he  con- 
sulted his  Jew-baiting  baby.  He  frequently  uses  the 
terms  "  lie  "  and  "  liar  "  of  others,  while  claiming  that 
he  is  himself  constitutionally  incapable  of  lying.2  He 
can  never  quote  an  opponent  without  covering  him  with 
abuse :  his  critics  are  "  shallow,  venal,  ignorant  bab- 
blers, slavish  souls  sprung  from  the  chaos  of  peoples."  3 
He  is  a  twentieth -century  exaggeration  of  the  pompous 
and  vapid  bully  who  used  to  lord  it  in  the  Quarterly  of 
the  early  nineteenth ;  he  is  a  street-corner  preacher  now 
assuming  the  toga  of  Roman  oratory,  and  now  the  robes 
of  Christian  ceremony;  but  he  is  a  violent  and  vulgar 
charlatan  all  the  time.  We  say,  and  say  it  deliberately, 
that  he  is  the  only  author  we  have  read  to  whose  work 
Sidney  Smith's  phrase,  "  the  crapulous  eructations  of  a 
drunken  cobbler,"  could  appropriately  be  applied. 

It  is  necessary  to  speak  so  of  this  book,  because  it 

1  Shakespeare  and  Michael  Angelo  '"do  not  know  a  word  of  Greek 
or  Latin." — Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  Intro.,  p.  68.    This  is 
just  Chamberlain's  style :  no  reticence,  no  qualification,  no  suggestion 
of  uncertainty  even  in  matters  admittedly  doubtful. 

2  See  article  by  Lord  Redesdale  in  Edinburgh  Review,  January  1914, 
p.  81. 

3  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  256.     See  also  p.  542  :  "  That 
is  a  lie,"  applied  to  Kollmann's  claim  that  all  European  races  are  equally 
gifted  for  every  task  of  culture. 

58 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

has  obtained  tremendous  vogue  in  Germany,  although 
here  in  England  it  seems  to  have  attracted  little 
attention,  notwithstanding  Lord  Redesdale's  eulogy, 
which  he  repeated  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  January 
1914,  although  introducing  a  belated  expression  of 
regret  at  his  master's  hostility  to  the  Jews.  We  have 
briefly  summarized  our  view  of  it ;  we  could  expatiate  at 
length  with  production  of  chapter  and  verse  if  necessary. 
We  have  spoken  of  Chamberlain's  self-contradictions. 
Here  is  an  example.  We  mentioned  just  now  his 
statement  that  no  person  could  belong  to  his  "  German  " 
race  unless  possessed  of  certain  physical  characteristics, 
"  no  matter  though  he  were  born  in  the  very  heart  of 
Germania,  speaking  a  Germanic  tongue  from  child- 
hood." Now  Chamberlain  takes  up  an  admiratory 
pose  before  the  "  purity  of  the  Jewish  race,"  and  ex- 
claims with  rapture  :  "  Has  not  every  genuine  race  its 
own  glorious,  incomparable  physiognomy?"1  Surely, 
then,  the  Jewish  features  will  be  the  essential  and  indis- 
pensable qualifications  of  the  Jew?  Nothing  of  the 
kind.  "  One  does  not  need  to  have  the  authentic 
Hittite  nose  to  be  a  Jew  :  the  term  Jew  rather  denotes 
a  special  way  of  thinking  and  feeling.  A  man  can  very 
soon  become  a  Jew  without  being  an  Israelite :  often  it 
needs  only  to  have  frequent  intercourse  with  Jews,  to 
,  read  Jewish  newspapers,  to  accustom  himself  to  Jewish 
philosophy,  literature,  and  art.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  senseless  to  call  an  Israelite  a  Jew,  though  his  descent 
is  beyond  question,  if  he  has  succeeded  in  throwing  off 
the  fetters  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  if  the  law  of 
Moses  has  no  place  in  his  brain  and  contempt  of  others 
no  place  in  his  heart." — "  With  tne  Apostle  Paul  we 
must  learn  that  he  is  not  a  Jew  who  is  one  outwardly, 
but  he  is  a  Jew  who  is  one  inwardly."  When  Cham- 
berlain speaks  in  this  eminently  reasonable  manner  he 
puts  himself  into  harmony  with  greater  men,  and  refutes 
his  own  fundamental  position  that  race  is  fatal,  final 
and  ineluctable.2  The  importance  of  the  contradiction 

1  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  261. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  491-2.     Cf.  the  well-known  distinction  in  Heine — surely 
not  unknown  to  Matthew  Arnold  :  "  '  Juden  '  und  '  Christen  '  sind  fur 
mich  ganz  sinnverwandte   Worte  im  Gegensatz  zu  '  Hellenen,'  mit 

59 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

far  surpasses  the  importance  of  the  writer  who  perpe- 
trates it;  he  represents  a  type,  the  type  which  perse- 
cuted Dreyfus  and  Beiliss,  and  which  arranges  and 
executes  the  terrible  pogrom. 

Now  according  to  Chamberlain  the  Jew  represents 
certain  qualities  which  are  destructive  of  the  qualities 
which  he  assigns  to  the  world-saving  "  German  "  race. 
"  If  the  Jewish  influence  were  to  gain  the  upper  hand 
in  Europe  in  the  intellectual  and  cultural  sphere,  we 
should  have  one  more  example  of  negative,  destructive 
power."  1  These  qualities  the  Jew  possesses  in  virtue 
of  his  race,  "  his  definite,  individual  racial  type."  Herr 
Chamberlain  is  very  rude  to  Reville  because  he  has 
said  that  the  question  whether  Christ  was  of  Aryan 
descent  is  idle,  and  that  a  man  belongs  to  the  nation 
in  whose  midst  he  has  grown  up.  "  This,"  says  Cham- 
berlain, "  this  is  what  people  call  '  science  '  in  the  year 
of  grace  1896.  To  think  that,  at  the  close  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  a  professor  could  still  be  ignorant  that 
the  form  of  the  head  and  the  structure  of  the  brain 
exercise  quite  decisive  influence  upon  the  form  and 
structure  of  the  thoughts,  so  that  the  influence  of  the 
surroundings,  however  great  it  may  be  estimated  to  be, 
is  yet,  by  this  initial  fact  of  the  physical  tendencies, 
confined  to  definite  capacities  and  possibilities,  in  other 
words,  has  definite  paths  marked  out  for  it  to  follow."  2 
Elsewhere  he  pushes  this  view  of  the  all-importance  of 
"  race  "  to  its  logical  conclusion,  and,  as  will  be  seen, 
lands  himself  in  the  usual  absurdity  which  greets  us 
whenever  plausible  generalizations  on  "  race "  are 
brought  to  the  test  of  actual  fact.3  Speaking  of  Jacob 

welchem  Namen  ich  ebenfalls  kein  bestimmtes  Volk,  sondern  eine  sowohl 
angeborene  als  angebildete  Geistesrichtung  und  Anschauungsweise 
bezeichne,  *etc." — Heine  :  Ueber  Ludwig  Borne,  Book  I. 

1  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  492. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  210  :  "  O,  Middle  Ages  !  "  exclaims  Chamberlain,  "  when 
will  your  night  leave  us  ?  " 

3  Here  is  a  charming  example.     He  says  (Foundations  of  Nineteenth 
Century,  p.  148)  that  the  Teutons  have  an  "  original  incapacity  to 
judge  acutely  in  questions  of  law,"  and  furnishes  a  "  conclusive  proof  " 
of  the  truth  of  the  statement  by 'quoting  the  fact  that  Otto  the  Great 
"  could  not  decide,  otherwise  than  by  a  duel,  the  fundamental  question 
whether  descendants  should  inherit  or  not."     And  yet  Tacitus,  eight 

60 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Grimm's  assertion  that  "  Germanic  strength  decided 
the  victory  of  Christianity,"  Chamberlain  says,  "It  is 
a  question,  as  it  were,  of  brain  convolutions  :  whatever 
is  put  in  must  bend  and  yield  according  to  their  shapes. 
—How  infinitely  important,  for  example,  is  the  old 
Germanic  belief  in  a  '  universal,  unchangeable,  pre- 
destined and  predestining  fate  '  !  Even  in  this  one 
'  brain  convolution,'  which  is  common  to  all  In  do- 
Europeans,  lies — perhaps  along  with  much  superstition 
— the  guarantee  of  a  rich  intellectual  development  in 
entirely  different  directions  and  upon  clearly  defined 
paths. — Just  as  a  boat  entrusted  to  the  apparently 
uniform  element  of  the  ocean  will  be  driven  very  different 
ways,  according  as  the  one  current  or  the  other  seizes 
it,  so  the  same  ideas  in  different  heads  travel  in  widely 
different  ways,  and  reach  regions  that  have  very  little 
in  common."  *  A  more  ridiculously  inapplicable  simile 
it  would  be  impossible  to  conceive;  but,  disregarding 
that,  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  identity  of  that  "  brain 
convolution,  common  to  the  whole  Indo-European 
race,"  which,  as  Chamberlain  says,  gives  you  a  "re- 
ligion of  grace  "  or  an  "  inductive  science,"  a  Spurgeon 
on  the  one  hand  or  a  Spencer  on  the  other.  To  put 
it  at  the  lowest,  it  would  be  quite  as  reasonable  to 
assume  two  separate  brain  convolutions  for  these  two 
separate  results  as  it  is  to  assume  one.  There  does 
not  seem  anything  particularly  compelling,  anything 
directly  or  inevitably  fatal,  in  a  tendency  which  lands  its 
victims  either  in  evangelical  religion  or  in  an  atheistic 
naturalism  according  to  circumstances.  And  what 
about  the  brain  convolution  of  those  who  are  neither 
agnostics  nor  evangelicals?  And  what  of  those  who 
are  both  ?  And,  what,  further,  about  the  evangelicals 
and  the  agnostics  who  do  not  belong  to  the  "  race  "  of 

hundred  years  before  Otto,  says  about  the  German! :  "Wills  are  unknown. 
The  Law  of  Succession  is  to  children"  (Germania,  Sect.  xx).  At  what 
point  between  A.D.  100  and  A.D.  950  did  the  Germans  acquire  "  their 
original  incapacity  "  to  decide  this  point  ?  "  One  might  well,"  says 
Chamberlain,  "relegate  German  law  as  an  ideal  to  the  future,  but  to 
seek  it  in  the  past  is  hypocritical  twaddle." — True,  indeed,  if  it  be 
sought  in  this  way. 

1  Foundations  of  Nineteenth  Century,  Vol.  II.  p.  109. 

61 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Spencer  or  Spurgeon  ?  Do  they  possess  the  same 
brain  convolution  ?  If  not,  why  not  ?  And  if  so, 
what  is  the  value  of  race  in  differentiating  the  beliefs 
and  attainments  of  mankind? 

But  foolish  and  inconsistent  as  these  views  of  Cham- 
berlain are,  they  are  still  held  by  a  number  of  people, 
who  always  quote  the  Jews  as  an  example  of  a  pure 
race,  whose  qualities,  physical  and  intellectual  and  moral, 
are  theirs  by  racial  descent,  and  whose  possession  of  them 
differentiates  them  from  the  Europeans  among  whom 
they  live,  differentiates  them  to  the  extent  of  giving 
handles  for  persecution  and  massacres.  As  no  case  proves 
more  clearly  than  that  of  the  Jews  the  objective  nullity 
of  "  race  "  as  a  factor  in  social  development,  it  is  im- 
portant to  examine  it  because  of  its  political  importance 
as  well  as  for  the  general  desirability  of  holding  reason- 
able views  upon  it. 

Although  it  is  not  necessary  from  our  point  of  view 
to  consider  the  question  whether  the  Jews  constitute  a 
"  pure  "  race :  although  a  pure  race  is  a  metaphysical 
abstraction;  it  is  interesting  to  note  that,  when  we 
investigate  the  historical  origins  of  the  Jews,  we  find 
that  complexity  and  plurality  which  we  find  in  every 
other  historical  record  of  the  first  beginnings  of  a 
people.  Ethnologists  and  anthropologists  tell  us  that 
the  Jews  belong  to  the  white  race,  but  to  the  dark- 
complexioned  division  of  that  race:  they  are  Melano- 
chroic  whites.  These  Melanochroic  whites  are  sub- 
divided into  three  groups  :  (1)  the  peoples  of  North 
Africa  and  Arabia,  represented  by  the  Arabian  Bedouins, 
but  including  the  Syrians  and  Babylonians;  (2)  the 
non-Arabian  peoples  of  Western  and  Southern  Asia, 
represented  by  the  Armenians  and  Persians,  and  (3)  the 
South-Europeans,  represented  by  the  Greeks.  We  are 
further  informed  by  the  authors  of  these  classifications 
that  the  Jews  are,  originally,  a  cross  between  the  first 
and  the  second  of  these  three  groups,  or,  more  concisely 
speaking,  between  the  Bedouins  and  the  Hittites.  The 
Bedouins  belong  to  the  so-called  Semite  group,  and  so 
far  as  culture  and  speech  were  concerned  the  Jews 
derived  from  them,  but  so  far  as  descent  is  concerned 
the  Jews  have  a  closer  relationship  with  the  people  of 

62 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  second  group,  the  inhabitants  of  Asia  Minor  and 
Persia,  whom  they  resemble  in  their  physical  linea- 
ments; especially  the  Armenians,  whom  the  most 
experienced  anthropologists  cannot  distinguish  from 
Jews.1  It  may  be  admitted  that  during  historical  times 
until  quite  recently  the  Jews  have  been  subjected  to 
such  social  conditions  of  restriction  and  seclusion  that 
they  have  admitted  foreign  admixture  to  their  blood  in 
a  lesser  degree  than  most  peoples.  But  even  if  they 
had  accomplished  the  physical,  moral  and  political 
impossibility  of  a  "  pure  "  race,  one  would  be  entitled 
to  ask  what  is  its  practical  value  when  the  so-called 
racial  characteristics  of  the  Jews  are  no  more  their 
characteristics  than  they  are  the  characteristics  of  a 
dozen  other  peoples.  If  a  Jew  exhibits  those  qualities 
which  fit  him  to  be  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England,  a 
position  normally  occupied  by  Englishmen  fitted  by 
the  possession  of  similar  qualities  for  the  same  post,  if 
a  Jew  and  an  Englishman  possess  the  same  qualities 
although  belonging  to  different  races,  what  is  the  value 
of  race  in  the  struggle  and  turmoil  of  practical  life? 
Besides,  if  the  Jew  possessed  those  qualities  as  an 
inevitable  endowment  of  his  race,  if  they  were  the 
necessary  consequence  of  a  particular  convolution  of  his 
brain,  should  we  not  find  every  member  of  the  race 
endowed  with  the  same  characteristics? 

Perhaps  at  this  point  a  critic  not  disinclined  to  admit 
the  general  truth  of  such  considerations  might  object 
that  "  the  Jews  have,  on  the  whole,  clear  physical  charac- 
teristics by  which  the  great  majority  can  be  recognized," 
and  that  "  this  is  a  remarkable  fact  which  it  is  no  good 
to  deny  or  argue  away."  2  But  before  we  are  impressed 
by  this  argument,  let  us  reflect  whither  it  would  lead  us 
in  face  of  the  fact  that  anthropologists  cannot  discrimi- 
nate the  physical  characteristics  of  the  Jew  from  those 

1  Die  Juden  der  Gegenwart :  Eine  Sozialwissenschaftliche  Studie,  von 
Dr.    Arthur   Ruppin   (Jiidischer  Verlag,   Koln   und  Leipzig).      "  Der 
erfahrenste  Anthropologe  wiirde  sich  vergeblich  bemiihen,   aus  einer 
Schar  von  Juden  und  Armenier  die  einen  oder  anderen  herauszufinden." 
— Ruppin,  p.  215. 

2  This,  of  course,  is  an  actual  objection,  having  been  advanced  by 
a  distinguished  critic  who  honoured  the  author  by  reading  the  work 
in  manuscript  (Sir  Stanley  Leathes,  K.C.B.,  M.A.). 

63 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  the  Armenian.  Do  the  Jew  and  the  Armenian 
possess  the  same  "  racial  character  "  ?  Will  Mr.  Zang- 
will  and  his  Zionists  admit  a  contingent  from  Erzerum 
to  join  their  ranks 

"  As  they  march,  God's  band, 
South,  East,  and  on  to  the  Pleasant  Land  "  ? 

And  what  about  the  minority  who,  ex  hypothesi,  cannot 
be  recognized  as  Jews  by  their  physical  characteristics  ? 
These  are  still  Jews,  although  physically  unrecog- 
nizable ;  and,  therefore,  possessed  of  certain  well-defined 
moral  or  other  characteristics  which  stamp  them  as 
Jews.  But  in  this  case  what  has  become  of  the  un- 
failing liaison  between  physical  traits  and  moral  charac- 
ter? The  Jews  of  Roumania,  we  are  told  by  Mdlle. 
Stratilesco,  "  are  quite  a  different  type  from  the  English 
Jew  :  always  fair — with  few  exceptions — with  red, 
thinly  curled  hair,  conspicuously  freckled  face."  *  And 
yet,  we  presume,  the  Roumanian  Jew  is  still  a  Jew, 
showing  the  unalterable  moral  type  of  his  race,  although 
the  physical  traits  upon  which  it  is  supposed  to  depend 
are  variable  with  his  environment.  Given,  however, 
the  general  physical  resemblance  of  the  Jews  in  charac- 
teristics more  lasting  than  the  complexion,  the  colour 
of  the  hair,  or  the  liability  to  freckles,  experience  shows 
that  this  resemblance  has  no  constant  relation  to  moral 
or  intellectual  character ;  and  that,  of  two  men  with  the 
same  hooked  nose  and  the  same  full  lips,  one  may  be 
as  cunning  as  a  diplomatist,  the  other  as  guileless  as 
Parson  Adams;  oi*e  a  generous  and  cultured  English 
gentleman,  the  other  a  cheating  huckster  at  his  booth 
in  the  Rue  Egnatia. 

It  is,  of  course,  common  knowledge  that  attempts 
are  made  to  assign  a  general  character  to  all  Jews  as 
such  :  the  quality  of  commercial  smartness  and  financial 
skill.  But  the  slightest  observation  makes  us  aware 
that  many  indubitable  Jews  are  as  deficient  in  financial 
acuteness  as  the  simplest  shepherd  of  the  dales  or 
ploughman  of  the  wolds.2  There  cannot,  therefore,  be 

1  From  Carpathian  to  Pindus,  p.  313. 

2  The  writer  has  met  such  Jews.     So  evidently  has  Mr.  Zangwill, 
with  his  wider  experience ;  and  has  given  an  instance  in  Moses  Ansell 
(Children  of  the  Ghetto,  1901). 

64 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

in  the  blood  or  brain  of  the  Jews  any  special  financial 
strain;  if  there  were,  it  would  show  itself  in  all  those 
who  share  the  blood  or  brain.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  an  environment  which  would  not  evoke  a 
function  of  this  kind  if  heredity  gave  it  special  promi- 
nence in  the  organism.  That  the  most  favourable 
environment  does  not  always  evoke  it  is  a  reasonable 
ground  for  believing  that  it  has  no  special  prominence 
in  the  organism.  But  if  it  is  not  possible  to  assume  any 
hereditary  endowment  to  explain  the  financial  genius 
of  the  Jews  neither  is  it  necessary  to  do  so.  That  the 
Jews  as  a  whole  have  a  long  record  of  financial  achieve- 
ments it  would  be  impossible  to  deny.  But  these 
achievements  argue  nothing  more  than  the  possession 
of  the  common  natural  aptitudes  of  humanity,  incited, 
fostered  and  cultivated  under  the  impulsion  of  a  highly 
favourable  environment.1 

In  Palestine  the  Jew  was,  for  the  most  part,  a  farmer. 
It  was  only  during  the  Babylonian  exile  that  he  turned 
his  attention  to  commerce,  a  change  of  environment 
which  naturally  led  to  a  change  of  habit.  And  it  is  the 
ultimate  hope'. of  the  Zionist  Movement — in  which  many 
Jews  see  the  only  means  of  saving  their  race  from 
gradual  disappearance  by  assimilation  with  the  peoples 
among  whom  they  live — that  the  Jews,  with  all  their 
financial  ability,  will  not  have  forgotten  how  to  farm  the 
lands  which  once  were  theirs,  as  they  farm  in  America 
to-day. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  effect  of  their  European  environ- 
ment upon  the  Jews,  every  child  knows  that  during  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Jews  were  practically  excluded  from 
all  occupations  except  trade  and  commerce.  It  requires 

1  "Die  jiidische  Rasse  1st nach  einer  Seite  ihrer  Veranlagung 

gleichsam  die  Inkarnation  kapitalistisch-kaufmannischen  Geistes." — 
W.  Soinbart,  Der  Moderne  Kapitalismus,  Bd.  II.  S.  349.  Leipzig,  1902. 
Quoted  by  Ruppin,  p.  47.  Ruppin's  note  on  this  proves  that  the 
mercantile  superiority  of  the  Jews  is  only  relative  to  the  Continental 
peoples  of  Europe  among  whom  they  live.  They  have  no  superiority 
as  compared  with  the  Hindoos,  Greeks,  Armenians  and  Chinese.  In 
the  East  the  proverb  says  that  in  trade  an  Armenian  is^worth  three 
Greeks  and  a  Greek  is  worth  three  Jews.  Ruppin  suggests  that  the 
reason  of  this  high  commercial  development  is  due  to  the  antiquity 
of  their  civilization  and  the  consequent  length  of  their  experience  in 
getting  a  Jiving. 

F  65 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

only  a  small  advance  in  knowledge  to  be  aware  that  the 
awakening  of  the  commercial  spirit  in  Christian  Europe 
in  £he  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  great  Trade  Guilds,  from  which 
Jews  were  excluded,  very  soon  effected  a  considerable 
change  in  the  financial  occupations  of  the  Jews.1  From 
merchants  they  became  pedlars,  pawnbrokers,  hucksters 
and  small  money-lenders,  and  for  nearly  five  hundred 
years  remained  such.  But  a  further  change  of  environ- 
ment effected  a  further  change  of  career.  The  eighteenth 
century  saw  the  rise  and  rapid  development  of  the  great 
industrial  age  which  still  shapes  all  our  lives.  The 
development  of  industrialism  has  meant  the  re-ascent  of 
the  Jew  to  a  pinnacle  of  wealth  and  influence  undreamed 
of  by  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory.  The  Jew  was  a 
money-lender  on  a  small  scale  for  five  hundred  years ;  he 
now  becomes  a  money-lender  on  a  large  scale ;  his  wealth 
becomes  "  productive  " ;  he  can  capitalize  magnificent 
concerns;  and  out  of  the  enormous  profits  rapidly  and 
securely  accruing  he  has  no  difficulty  in  getting  his 
money  repaid  with  opulence  of  interest.  The  associa- 
tion of  Jew  and  Christian  in  capitalistic  and  industrial 
life  soon  breaks  down  the  barriers  of  centuries  of  hate 
and  contempt,  and  the  political  and  social  emancipation 
of  the  Jews  in  the  countries  of  Western  Europe  is 
eventually  effected,  opening  up  to  the  Jews  every 
career  they  choose  to  enter,  giving  these  countries,  not 
only  great  capitalists  and  financiers,  but  Jewish  Prime 
Ministers,  Jewish  Judges,  Jewish  Postmaster-Generals, 
as  well  as  artists,  musicians,  and  men  of  letters.2  What, 
again  may  we  ask,  is  the  specific  meaning  of  his  "  race  " 

1  These  statements  as  to  the  generally  financial  character  of  Jewish 
occupations  do  not  cover  the  whole  ground;  but  their  qualification 
does  not  help  those  who  would  contend  that  the  Jews  are  financiers 
by  race.     "  In  mediaeval  society  Jewish  doctors  kept  alight  the  faint 
flicker  of  science  in  spite  of  the  cold  blasts  of  dogma.   Jewish  translators 
interpreted  the  ancient  Classics  to  the  barbarian  world,  and  were  the 
accepted  teachers  alike  of  Christian  and  Moslem  philosophers. — They 
were  great  chart-makers  too.     Of  poets  and  poetesses  of  fine  inspiration 
there  was  never  any  lack." — Fredk.  York  Powell  (see  next  note). 

2  "  The  French  Revolution  scotched  the  power  of  the  persecutor  and 
gave  once  morfe  an  open  career  to  men  like  Marx,  Lassalle,  Darmeeteter, 
Reinach,  Disraeli,  Gambetta." — Fredk.  York  Powell,  Vol.  II.  p.  143 
of  his  Life  and  Letters,  by  Oliver  Elton  (Clarendon  Press,  1906). 

06 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

to  an  Englishman,  when  this  oriental  people,  alien  as 
possible  to  his  own,  conies  into  his  environment  and 
exhibits  just  those  very  qualities  which  he  himself  has 
exhibited  and  exhibits  ?  The  Jew  was  a  farmer  when 
he  was  in  a  farmer's  environment ;  a  pawnbroker  when 
his  political  surroundings  compelled  him;  a  merchant 
prince  when  opportunity  arose.  There  is  now  no 
career  to  which  he  cannot  aspire;  none  for  which  he 
is  not  fitted.  Noble  poetry,  lofty  morality,  supreme 
religious  inspiration  he  had  compassed  when  he  wrote  or 
thought  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic ;  when  he  mastered  the 
languages  of  Europe  he  shamed  the  pedantic  subtleties 
of  the  Talmud  by  Philo's  generous  philosophy  and 
Spinoza's  profound  meditations.  We  read  with  some 
incredulity  accounts  of  how  Catholic  Spain  allowed 
"  secret  "  Jews  to  become  Bishops  and  Archbishops,1 
but  to-day  a  Jewish  Lord  Chief  Justice  decides  between 
quarrelling  Christian  sects,  and  performs  the  func- 
tions of  an  Ecclesiastical  Commissioner  with  general 
acquiescence  and  consent. 

There  is  thus  nothing  in  the  history  or  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  Jews  which  justifies  the  view  that  the 
latter  are  not  the  product  of  the  former,  or  the  view 
that  history  and  characteristics  alike  are  the  necessary 
results  of  a  peculiar  cerebral  convolution.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  abundantly  manifest,  almost  more  so 
than  in  the  case  of  any  other  people,  that  the  environ- 
ment of  the  Jews,  when  it  has  been  constant  from 
generation  to  generation — as,  for  example,  during  their 
centuries  of  imprisonment  in  the  ghetto — has  produced, 
a  constant  character,  and  when  the  environment  has 
varied,  as  it  has  from  generation  to  generation  during 
the  last  century  and  a  half  in  Western  Europe,  the 
variations  of  the  environment  have  been  followed  by 
variations  of  character  which  have  small  suggestion  of 
the  ghetto  or  the  pawnshop. 

Why  is  the  Jew  of  Russia  or  Galicia  to-day  at  the 
level  of  culture  and  character  common  to  all  European 
Jews  in  the  fourteenth  century?  And  why  have  the 
academically-educated  Jews  of  Germany  and  England 

1  See  David  Mocatta,  The  Jews  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  quoted  by 
H.  S.  Chamberlain,  Vol.  L  p.  341. 

67 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

less  in  common  with  the  Jew  of  Galicia  and  Russia 
than  they  have  with  non-Jewish  Germans  or  English- 
men? To  answer  that  question  is  to  recognize  that 
the  character  of  a  people  depends  upon  its  environment, 
and  that  with  proper  adjustments  of  education  and 
tradition  you  can  turn  an  oriental  Jew  into  an  occidental 
Englishman  or  plus  quam  occidental  American.  This 
view  will  be  more  fully  illustrated  in  the  following 
chapters,  in  which  it  is  suggested  that  the  handing  down 
of  a  common  tradition  explains  the  similarities  of 
character  between  the  people  of  Tacitus  and  -the  people 
of  Beowulf,  and  that  the  modifications  and  additions 
operating  upon  this  tradition  owing  to  successive 
changes  of  environment  account  for  the  dissimilarities 
of  character  between  a  people  in  one  century  and  its 
representatives  several  centuries  later.  In  the  case  of 
the  West  European  Jews  these  changes  of  environment 
have  been  extremely  great  during  the  last  century  and 
a  half,  and  the  character  of  the  Jews  has,  in  West 
European  countries,  undergone  correspondingly  em- 
phatic variations.  But  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  a 
Jew  who  has  become  in  eyery  respect  a  cultured  English 
gentleman  exhibits  a  casuistical  subtlety  in  philosophy 
and  religion,  or  a  supreme  skill  in  financial  combina- 
tions, which  do  not  characterize  the  ordinary  Englishman 
any  more  than  they  characterize  every  Jew.  Where  they 
do  exist)  they  are,  no  doubt,  to  some  extent  the  result 
of  the  old  tradition  of  Talmud  training  and  financial 
alertness  and  experience  handed  down  from  the  fathers 
of  one  generation  to  the  childhood  of  the  next.  Dr. 
Ruppin  seems  to  think  that  the  sophistical  .subtlety 
and  the  financial  skill  are  both  alike  due  to  the  Talmud 
training,  and,  indeed,  both  qualities  require  a  continual 
mental  alertness  and  ever-active  "  smartness  "  for  their 
perfection.  The  premium  put  upon  superior  knowledge 
of  the  Talmud  by  the  East  European  Jews  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages  furnishes  a  very  clear 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  a  characteristic  can  be 
fostered  and  perfected  in  a  community.  The  well-to-do 
Jew  with  a  marriageable  daughter  used  to  seek,  not  for 
a  rich,  but  for  a  learned  son-in-law,  i.  e.,  as  Dr.  Ruppin 
says,  for  one  deeply  versed  in  the  Talmud,  and  for  the 

68 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

advantages  of  such  a  union  he  was  prepared  for  material 
sacrifices  in  the  way  of  financial  assistance  to  the  young 
couple.1  Why  postulate  a  special  racial  endowment  of 
subtlety  and  smartness  when  the  environment  was  so 
ready  to  create  and  to  endow  it?  Why  seek  for  a 
"learned"  son-in-law  if  all  members  of '  the  "race" 
possessed,  ipso  facto,  the  special  qualities  which  "learn- 
ing "  gave  ?  In  so  far  as  a  tradition  is  permanent  from 
generation  to  generation,  so  are  the  characteristics 
fostered  by  that  tradition  permanent  from  generation 
to  generation.  In  so  far  as  a  tradition  changes  by 
addition,  subtraction  or  modification,  to  that  extent 
the  characters  nourished  by  the  tradition. are  increased, 
diminished  or  modified,  and  according  to  the  tradition 
prevalent  in  a  particular  generation  will  be  the  character 
of  the  people  in  that  particular  generation. 

It  is  this  consideration  which  proves  the  folly  of  the 
argument  advanced  by  M.  Maurice  Barres  and  the 
French  Nationalists  against  the  patriotism  of  Jews  by 
adducing  the  case  of  Mr.  Oswald  John  Simon,  who  had 
written  to  The  Times  to  the  effect  that,  in  the  event  of 
his  entering  upon  a  parliamentary  career,  he  wished  to 
make  it  clear  that  in  a  supposed  conflict  between  his 
duty  as  a  Jew  and  his  duty  as  an  Englishman  he  would 
have  to  decide  in  favour  of  the  former;  because,  said 
he,  "  I  am  what  my  ancestors  were  for  thousands  of 
years,  rather  than  what  they  have  been  since  the  time 
of  Oliver  Cromwell."  2  We  laugh  to-day  in  England  at 
the  notion  of  a  Jew  placing  his  duty  as  a  Jew  before  his 
duty  as  an  Englishman,  even  in  the  unlikely  event  of 
the  collision  arising;  but  it  is  just  as  well  to  see  that 
we  are  justified  in  laughing  and  that  the  argument  is 
vicious  and  untenable.  It  would  not  be  vicious  and 
untenable  if  the  views  of  Maurice  Barres,  or  Houston 
Chamberlain,  or  Gustave  Le  Bon,  as  to  the  fatality  of 
race  were  true  views.  But  when  we  accept  a  view 
which  asserts  that  the  Jew  in  England  before  Cromwell 
was  surrounded  by  a  crowd  like  that  which  at  once  bait 
Shylock  and  batten  on  him  in  the  Merchant  of  Venice, 

1  Ruppin,  p.  114. 

2  Scenes  et  Doctrines  du  Nationalisme,  par  Maurice  Barres,  de  1'Aca- 
d6mie  Fran§aise  (Paris  :  Librairie  Felix  Juven). 

69 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

and  that  his  character  necessarily  responded  to  his  sur- 
roundings; which  recognizes  that  the  life  of  the  Jew 
in  England  since  Cromwell's  time  has  gradually  grown 
richer  in  all  the  elements  that  make  life  worth  living, 
until  now  the  highest  rewards  that  English  society  has 
to  offer  to  its  favourite  children  are  offered  to  him,  and 
that  this  successive  amelioration  of  environment  has 
necessarily  brought  with  it  an  amelioration  of  character ; 
we  find  it  utterly  impossible  to  conceive  that  a  Jew  of 
to-day  could  revert  to  the  pre-Cromwellian  conditions 
unless  he  deliberately  chose  to  do  so  from  a  mistaken 
sense  of  duty  or  other  conscious  impulsion.  Of  course, 
if  in  Mr.  Simon's  family  the  pre-Cromwellian  tradition 
of  hatred  and  contempt  had  been  maintained  miracu- 
lously unchanged  under  three  centuries  of  changing 
national  environment,  that  would  be  another  matter; 
but  things  being  as  they  are,  a  Jew  of  to-day  in  the 
hypothetical  case  of  Mr.  Oswald  Simon  would  choose 
in  accordance  with  the  learning  and  education  of  his 
own  generation,  and  the  learning  and  education  of  a 
Jew  in  England  to-day  are  in  essence  the  learning  and 
education  of  an  Englishman.1 

So  far  as  the  Jews  of  Great  Britain  are  concerned,  the 
war  has  settled  this  question  finally;  their  patriotism 
as  Englishmen  is  beyond  suspicion.2  But  England  is 
not  the  only  home  of  Jews,  nor  is  it  the  only  field  of 
their  patriotic  exertions.  In  Poland,  a  regiment  of 
Jewish  volunteers  fought  under  Kosciusko's  banners, 
Ie4  by  the  Jewish  Colonel  Berko,  who  fell  fighting 
against  the  Austriaris  in  1809 ;  and  to-day  the  orthodox 

1  "  Mais  il  y  a  Incompatibility  entre  les  Fran9ais  et  les  juifs.     L'an- 
tagonisme  est  irreductible.     C'est  une  affaire  de  race." — " '  Je  crois 
au  contraire,'  dit  M.  Bergeret,  '  que  les  juifs  sont  extraordinairement 
assimilables  et  1'espece  d'hommes  la  plus  plastique  et  malleable  qui 
soit  au  monde.' — Ce  n'est  pas  la  race  qui  fait  la  patrie.   Rappelez- vous  la 
belle  parole  de  Renan ;  je  voudrais  pouvoir  la  citer  exactement :    '  Ce 
qui  fait  que  des  honimes  forment  un  peuple,  c'est  le  souvenir  des 
grandes  choses  qu'ils  ont  faites  ensemble  eft  la  volonte  d'en  accomplir 
des    nouvelles.'  " — Anatole   France,   L'Anneau    d'Amlthyste    (Paris : 
Calmont-Levy),  pp.  351-3. 

2  At  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  when  our  army  organization 
was  still  on  a  voluntary  basis,  it  was  remarked  by  a  recruiting  officer 
in  the  East  End  of  London  that  "  the  little  Jew  boys  have  done  very 
W«1L" 

70 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Jews  are  as  patriotic  as  their  Christian  fellow-country- 
men in  their  desire  for  a  "  great  and  strong  Poland, 
whose  territories  shall  sweep  to  the  sea."  l  In  Russia 
"  the  Jews  have  at  all  times  furnished  a  goodly  con- 
tingent to  the  revolutionary  movement,  and  many  of 
them  have  belied  their  traditional  reputation  of  timidity 
and  cowardice  by  taking  part  in  very  dangerous  Ter- 
rorist enterprises,  in  some  cases  ending  their  careers  on 
the  scaffold."  In  1897  they  created  a  Social  Democratic 
organization  of  their  own,  commonly  known  as  the  Bund, 
which  joined,  in  1898,  the  Russian  Social  Democratic 
Labour  Party.2  Such  facts  as  these  demonstrate  quite 
clearly  the  adaptability  of  the  Jews  to  their  immediate 
national  environment  in  spite  of  their  "  fixed  physical 
characteristics,"  and  the  futility  of  basing  any  social 
conclusion  on  the  existence  of  such  characteristics  is 
illustrated  by  the  apprehensions  entertained  in  many 
quarters  at  the  so-called  "  cosmopolitan  "  leanings  of 
Jewish  finance,  which,  if  they  prove  anything  at  all 
relevant  to  the  issue,  prove  that  the  Jew,  with  his 
national  character  finally  and  fatally  fixed,  does  not 
possess  any  national  character  at  all. 

The  process  of  assimilation  which  has  transformed 
the  Ghetto  Jew  into  a  modern  English  or1  German  or 
Italian  gentleman  is  a  triumph  of  environment,  and  it 
is  impossible,  in  our  opinion,  for  anybody  to  read  a  clear 
and  impartial  account  of  this  process  (such  as  that 
given  by  Dr.  Ruppin  3)  without  being  convinced  that, 
for  all  practical  purposes  of  social,  political,  economical, 
literary,  scientific  and  artistic  life,  environment  in  the 
case  of  the  Jews  is  everything  and  race  nothing.  Dr. 
Ruppin  over  and  over  again  traces  the  steps  by  which, 
within  a  decade,  or  at  most  a  generation,  the  orthodox 
Jew  of  Russia  or  Galicia  becomes  an  American  citizen 
of  the  most  acceptable  type.  "  The  Jew  who  to-day 
emigrates  to  the  United  States  as  a  strongly  orthodox 
Jew,  speaking  Yiddish  only,  we  find  ten  years  later, 

„  x  Rabbi  Perlmutter's  speech  in  the  Polish  Diet  on  February  24, 
1919,  as  reported  by  the  Daily  News  correspondent  at  Warsaw  in  the 
Daily  News  of  February  27. 

2  Russia,  by  Sir  Donald  Mackenzie  Wallace.     (See  next  chapter.) 
*  Dr.  Ruppin,  pp.  1-208. 

71 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

when  he  has  escaped  from  the  East  End,  already  tolerant, 
speaking  broken  English,  and  attending  a  somewhat 
modernized  religious  service.  At  the  expiration  of 
twenty  years  he  has  actually  joined  Reformed  Judaism, 
which  holds  the  Sabbath  on  Sunday,  speaks  English 
for  preference,  and  lets  his  children  enjoy  a  modern 
American  education.  With  his  children,  or  at  furthest 
his  grandchildren,  the  feeling  of  Jewish  communion  is 
as  good  as  vanished,  and  any  breath  of  wind  is  sufficient 
to  bring  them  to  Christianity."  x  With  these  views 
Mr.  Israel  Zangwill  is  in  entire  harmony,  as  is  proved 
by  his  play  of  the  Melting  Pot,  and  by  innumerable 
passages  in  his  fascinating  English  novels  of  Jewish 
life.  One  cannot  imagine  in  such  circumstances  any 
conflict  arising  between  a  Judaic  and  an  American  sense 
of  duty  in  the  same  individual  citizen. 

Although  criminal  statistics  prove  that  the  Jews  are 
more  given  to  intellectual  crimes  than  to  physical 
crimes,  and  some  people  imagine  that  the  tendency  to 
this  sort  of  crime  is  racial,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  general  character  of  Jewish  avocations  conditions 
the  general  character  of  the  crimes  they  commit ;  a 
statement  which  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  in  Amster- 
dam, where  the  occupation  is  physical,  the  prevailing 
character  of  the  Jewish  criminal  statistics  is  physical 
too.  Dr.  Ruppin  himself  evidently  believes  that  the 
Jews  possess  specific  racial  qualities  differentiating 
them  from  other  people,  but  he  is  greatly  alarmed  at 
the  rapid  absorption  of  the  Jews  by  other  nationalities. 
If,  however,  the  Jew  kept  his  distinct  racial  qualities, 
he  would  not  be  assimilated;  and  if  he  could  keep 
his  racial  qualities  after  assimilation,  what  would  the 
danger  of  assimilation  be? 

The  case  of  the  Jews,  therefore,  proves  strongly  the 
reasonableness  of  the  attitude  assumed  in  these  pages, 
and,  so  far  from  being  an  exception  to  the  rule  advanced, 

1  Ruppin,  p.  93.  Compare  Zangwill,  Children  of  the  Ghetto,  p.  83. 
"  But  far  more  vividly  did  she  realize  that  she  was  an  English  girl ; 
far  keener  than  her  pride  in  Judas  Maccabaeus  was  her  pride  in  Nelson 
and  Wellington;  she  rejoiced  to  find  that  her  ancestors  had  always 
beaten  the  French,  from  the  day  of  dressy  and  Poictiers  to  the  day  of 
Waterloo."  ("  Ancestors  "  is  delightful.) 

72 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

is  a  most  striking  and  effective  example  of  its  validity. 
The  Jewish  question  is  one  which  will  find  its  own 
solution,  unless  unnatural  efforts  are  made  to  keep  up 
the  pretence  of  Judaistic  nationalism.  The  develop- 
ment of  social  life  in  the  modern  world  has  not  been 
favourable  to  the  existence  of  pure  races ;  if  nationality 
depended  on  race  there  would  be  no  nationality  in 
Europe  to-day.  The  Jew,  in  refusing  to  fight  against 
the  process  of  assimilation,  would  be  recognizing  and 
helping  the  natural  trend  of  human  affairs  in  the  societies 
in  which  he  lives ;  he  would  play  a  greater  and  a  more 
effective  role  as  Briton,  American  or  German  than  as 
Jew,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  these  nationalities  could 
not  be  other  than  richer  and  stronger  for  the  blending 
of  the  ancient  and  variegated  tradition  of  this  famous 
people  with  their  own.1 

To  finish  on  the  note  with  which  this  chapter  was 
begun.  Purity  of  race  is  a  metaphysical  conception, 
which  in  practice  is  found  to  apply  as  little  to  the  Jews 
as  to  any  other  people.  The  Jews,  in  spite  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  have  always  been  ready  to  assimilate  with 
other  peoples.  That  process,  as  Dr.  Ruppin  shows,  is 
going  on  with  great  rapidity  to-day.  If  the  history  of 
the  Jews  is  fatally  dependent  on  their  racial  charac- 
teristics, it  must,  surely  with  regret,  be  admitted  that 
one  of  the  racial  characteristics  of  the  Jews  is  to  adopt 
the  racial  characteristics  of  other  peoples  in  the  place 
of  their  own.  Now  a  racial  characteristic  is  something 
from  which  no  member  of  a  race  can  escape.  But  it 
is  a  racial  characteristic  of  the  Jews  to  escape  from 
their  racial  characteristics ;  therefore  it  is  a  racial 
characteristic  of  the  Jews  to  escape  from  something 
from  which  they  cannot  escape. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  development  of  a  strong  sense  of 

1  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that,  when  the  Zionist  case  was  placed 
before  the  Council  of  the  Great  Powers  at  the  Peace  Conference  (in 
February  1919),  the  speakers  emphasized  their  desire  and  intention 
"  to  build  up  their  national  home,  not  with  Jews  who  are  consciously 
English,  French,  Polish  or  Russian,  but  by  Jews  who  will  participate 
in  a  revival  of  Hebrew  national  consciousness  and  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage." Here  it  is  consciousness  of  nationality  that  counts  and  not 
race — a  subjective  and  not  an  objective  fact. — See  Daily  News, 
February  28,  1919. 

73 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

organic  continuity  of  common  interest  made  the  Jews  a 
peculiar  people,  a  people  set  apart.  As  this  organic 
continuity  of  common  interest  has  been  broken  up  by 
the  multitudes  of  other  interests  which  have  appealed 
to  them  during  the  last  two  or  three  centuries,  they  are 
losing  their  national  characteristics;  and  as  separate 
groups  of  them  settle  among  different  communities,  each 
possessing  its  own  special  interests,  each  group  is  begin- 
ning to  feel  itself  organically  a  sharer  in  thenew  interests, 
and  the  nationality  of  the  Jew  is  merged  in  that  of  the 
Englishman  or  the  American  citizen.  The  objective 
influence  of  race  in  the  evolution  of  nationality  is  a 
fiction,  and  the  sole  foundation  or  justification  of 
nationality  is  the  recognition  of  an  organic  community 
of  interest  with  other  members  of  a  group  subjected  to 
the  same  social  and  political  environment. 

This  prolonged  examination  of  recent  anthropological 
and  ethnological  researches,  and  of  the  difficulties  and 
absurdities  involved  in  any  attempt  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion of  nationality  and  national  character  upon  a  basis 
of  natural  distinctions  of  endowment  between  different 
races  of  humanity,  leads  inevitably  to  the  conclusion 
that  to  envisage  race  as  an  operating  objective  factor 
in  the  evolution  of  societies  is  both  unscientific  and 
unphilosophical. 

It  is  now  more  than  sixty  years  since  Buckle  ex- 
pressed the  view  that  natural  differences  in  men  of 
different  races,  though  possible,  were  unproven ;  x  and 
the  foregoing  inquiry  into  the  results  of  recent  anthro- 
pological and  ethnological  researches  has  served,  we 
submit,  to  emphasize  Buckle's  position  by  transforming 
his  "  possible  but  unproven  "  into  "  impossible  and 
disproven."  But  it  is  always  unsatisfactory  to  the 
emotion  of  intellectual  curiosity  to  be  compelled  to 
acquiesce  in  a  negative  conclusion.  To  have  proved 
that  a  long-accepted  explanation  is  not  an  explana- 
tion at  all  is  a  pleasing  achievement  only  so  far  as  it 
clears  the  ground  for  work  towards  a  more  reasonable 

1  History  of  Civilization  in  England,  by  Henry  Thomas  Buckle 
("  World's  Classics  "),  Vol.  I.  p.  30,  footnote.  He  says  that  "  inherent 
natural  differences  may  or  may  not  exist,  but  most  assuredly  have 
never  been  proved." 

74 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

explanation.  Nationality,  with  all  its  important  im- 
plications, is  a  fact  which  can  be  neither  eluded  nor 
denied;  and,  if  nations  are  what  they  are  because 
of  the  experiences  through  which  they  have  passed, 
it  seems  reasonable  to  look  for  the  explanation  of 
nationality  and  national  character  in  the  nature  of 
such  experiences.  If  the  gaps  which  separate  nations 
are  the  results,  not  of  equipment,  but  of  achievement, 
it  is  natural  to  search  the  records  of  that  achievement 
for  the  principle  which  creates  nationality  and  gives 
social  life  and  communal  sympathies  to  the  individual 
member  of  the  national  agglomeration.  If  we  can  do 
this,  we  shall  not  only  have  removed  the  question  from 
the  fatalistic  sphere  of  racial  prejudice,  but  we  shall  have 
proved  that  nationality  is  a  conviction  based  upon 
practical  realities,  upon  the  facts  of  historical  develop- 
ment, and  upon  the  demands  of  human  experience. 
The  principle  of  nationality  would  then  no  longer  stand 
for  an  irrational  instinct,  but  for  a  reasonable  sentiment, 
nay,  an  argued  conviction,  as  sound  and  forcible  as 
any  other  relationship  founded  upon  facts  and  their 
rational  interpretation.  To  ascertain  whether  there  is 
any  reasonable  basis  for  this  sentiment  or  conviction  is 
the  duty  of  those  who,  while  recognizing  and  welcoming 
the  fact  of  nationality,, refuse  to  find  its  explanation  and 
justification  in  any  theory  of  racial  character. 


If  Race  not  the  Basis  of  Nationality,  does  Nationality  itself 
disappear  ? — Nationality  founded  on  Community  of  Interest — 
National  History  founded  on  Continuity  of  common  Interest — 
The  Operation  of  this  Principle  illustrated  from  contemporary 
Writers — Sir  Mackenzie  Wallace  and  Russia — Mr.  J.  R.  Fisher 
and  Finland — Dr.  Brandes  and  Poland — Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson 
and  The  Evolution  of  States :  the  "Hallucination"  of  Nationality 
— Nationality  not  an  Hallucination,  but  a  living  Reality  founded 
on  History  jind  Reason. 

THE  considerations  adduced  in  the  foregoing  chapters 
appear  to  lead  inevitably  to  two  important  conclusions. 
In  the  first  place,  Race  as  an  objective  reality  cannot 
be  accepted  as  the  foundation  of  the  sentiment  or 
conviction  of  nationality;  and  in  the  second  place, 
any  explanation  of  that  widespread  and  indisputable 
factor  in  human  development  must  be  sought  after, 
not  in  a  metaphysical  theory,  but  in  the  actual  fields 
of  human  experience  and  achievement.  Everywhere 
to-day  we  recognize  in  the  forces  of  nationality  mighty 
instruments  towards  the  progress  of  human  com- 
munities; nor  can  we  blind  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
these  forces  operate  to  weld  into  harmonious  social 
and  political  co-operation  peoples  of  dissimilar  racial 
origins,  or  to  the  fact  that  peoples  of  the  same  racial 
origins  are  often  rendered  bitterly  hostile  to  each 
other  by  the  influence  of  opposing  nationalistic  forces. 
Both  these  facts  are  equally  negative  of  the  theory 
of  racial  nationality ;  both  alike  have  their  explanation 
in  the  records  of  the  experience  through  which  the  nation 
has  passed  in  the  course  of  its  historical  evolution.  His- 
tory alone  explains  why  the  innumerable  races  in  Britain 
and  her  Empire  to-day  constitute  one  great  and  in- 
expugnable nation ;  why  the  descendants  of  the  English 
of  the  Pale  are  at  present  more  Irish  than  British; 
why  Teuton  and  Celt  in  France  are  hostile  to  Teuton 
and  Celt  in  Germany;  why  Teuton  and  Celt  and  Slav 

76 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

and  Jew  and  the  rest  are  now  in  process  of  consolid- 
ating that  national  unity  which  enabled  America  to 
make  so  effective  a  demonstration  in  the  Great  War. 
Everywhere  we  find  a  specific  mark  of  nationality  in 
the  recognition  of  a  common  interest;  everywhere  we 
find  nations  separated  from  even  kindred  nations  by 
the  existence  of  competing  spheres  of  interest.  Where 
the  sentiment  or  conviction  of  nationality  is  weak,  we 
find  that  the  nationalizing  process  has  not  succeeded 
in  establishing  perfect  community  of  interest,  as  in 
the  case  of  Ireland  in  regard  to  Great  Britain;  in 
Finland  as  regards  Russia;  in  Alsace  as  regards 
Germany ;  and  in  other  cases  which  have  been  the  cause 
of  serious  concern  to  the  Peace  Conference  at  Versailles, 
and  will  probably  be  the  cause  of  serious  concern  to  the 
world  at  large  for  many  generations. 

In  whatever  part  of  the  civilized  world  we  look 
to-day,  we  find  innumerable  examples  of  the  process 
by  which  peoples  of  different  race  are  brought  together 
under  one  national  scheme  by  community  of  interest, 
and  in  some  cases  we  can  perceive  the  process  of  assimi- 
lation actually  taking  place.  Sir  Mackenzie  .  Wallace, 
whose  fascinating  book  on  Russia  is  generally  recognized 
as  the  work  of  a  competent  and  impartial  observer, 
states  that  during  his  wanderings  in  the  Northern 
provinces  of  Russia  he  found  villages  in  every  stage  of 
Russification.1  "  In  one,  everything  seemed  Finnish  : 
the  inhabitants  had  a  red,  olive  skin,  very  high  cheek- 
bones, obliquely  set  eyes,  and  a  peculiar  costume. "- 
"  In  the  fourth,  intermarriage  had  almost  completely 
done  its  work,  and  the  old  Finnish  element  could  be 
detected  merely  in  certain  peculiarities  of  physiognomy 
and  pronunciation."  But  it  does  not  require  even 
intermarriage,  with  its  minglings  of  different  domestic 
associations,  to  assimilate  the  social  environments  of 
the  two  races.  "  The  Russians  adopted  many  customs 
from  the  Finns,  and  the  Finns  adopted  still  more  from 
the  Russians."  "  A  Tchermiss,  on  one  occasion,  in 
consequence  of  a  serious  illness,  sacrificed  a  young  foal 
to  our  Lady  of  Kazan."  A  small  reward  offered  by 

1  Russia,  by  Sir  Donald  Mackenzie  Wallace,  K.C.I.E.,  K.C.V.O. 
(Cassell  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  1905). 

77 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  ecclesiastical  authorities  to  encourage  conversion  by 
baptism  brought  a  convert's  request  for  the  repetition 
of  the  ceremony.  "  Community  of  faith  led  to  inter- 
marriage, and  intermarriage  led  rapidly  to  the  blending 
of  the  two  races  " ;  but  it  is  clear  that  the  blending 
of  religions  was  the  earlier  process,  a  social  amalga- 
mation being  thus  the  prelude  to  a  racial  admixture, 
instead  of  depending  upon  it.  This  method  of  "  com- 
mingling of  atmospheres  "  is  illustrated  by  the  negative 
example  of  the  Tartar,  who  does  not  become  Russian- 
ized although  living  in  the  same  villages  as  the  Russians, 
his  Mahometan  faith  opposing  a  strong  bar  to  inter- 
marriage with  the  Infidel.  It  is  extremely  interesting 
to  find  that,  when  Sir  M.  Wallace  accepts  a  difference 
of  race  as  connected  with  distinctions  in  tribal  character, 
it  is  in  a  very  hesitating  and  provisional  manner, 
anticipating  a  time  when  fuller  knowledge  will  suggest 
a  more  reasonable  hypothesis.  "  The  Mordva,  for 
instance,  are  infinitely  less  conservative  than  the 
Tchuvash.  For  the  present  we  must  attribute  this  to 
some  occult  ethnological  peculiarity,  but  future  investi- 
gation may  some  day  supply  a  more  satisfactory  ex- 
planation. Already  I  have  obtained  some  facts  which 
appear  to  throw  light  on  the  subject.  The  Tchuvash 
have  certain  customs  which  seem  to  indicate  that  they 
were  formerly,  if  not  avowed  Mahometans,  at  least 
under  the  influence  of  Islam,  whilst  we  have  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  Mordva  ever  passed  through  that 
school."  In  general  harmony  with  the  process  thus 
illustrated  in  detail,  Sir  M.  Wallace  accepts  the  view 
that  the  Russian  Empire  was  "in  a  certain  sense  " 
founded  by  the  Normans  of  Scandinavia,  who,  in  Russia 
as  in  France,  adopted  the  language,  religion  and 
customs  of  the  Slav  population  who  formed  the  bulk 
of  their  subjects  in  the  kingdoms  and  principalities  they 
created,  thus  commingling  the  various  cultures  and 
traditions  which  are  the  inheritance  of  the  present- 
day  Russian.  In  spite  of.  this  general  Slavization 
of  the  Russian,  many  Finn  characteristics  survive,  and 
many  "  Slavs "  are  indubitably  of  Finnish  descent. 
The  Tartar,  on  the  other  hand,  and  the  Slav  have  not 
amalgamated.  "  The  Tartars,"  says  Wallace,  "  never 
settled  in  Russia  proper,  and  never  amalgamated  with 

78 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

the  native  population.  So  long  as  they  retained  their 
semi-Pagan,  semi-Buddhistic  religion,  a  certain  number 
of  their  notables  became  Christians,  and  were  absorbed 
hy  the  Russian  noblesse,  but  as  soon  as  the  Horde 
adopted  Islam  the  movement  was  arrested."  And 
here  again  we  see  that  difference  of  race  is  no  bar  to 
a  process  of  assimilation,  while  that  process  is  immedi- 
ately stayed  when  one  of  the  contiguous  traditions 
admits  an  element  which  is  hostile  to  admixture  except 
with  traditions  containing  the  same  element. 

These  considerations  clearly  show  that,  in  Russia 
at  any  rate,  racial  distinctions  oppose  no  resistance  to 
the  amalgamation  of  social  traditions,  and  to  the  conse- 
quent assumption  of  new  national  characteristics  in 
races  supposed  to  have  their  characters  eternally  fixed 
by  the  inalienable  laws  of  heredity.  Jt  was  only  when 
the  social  tradition  itself,  and  that,  too,  an  extraneous 
adoption  from  another  tradition,  was  irreconcilable  that 
the  commingling  of  the  different  races  into  a  new  com- 
bination did  not  occur.  In  harmony  with  this  eminently 
sane  and  practical  view  Sir  M.  Wallace  explains  the 
love  of  novelty,  the,,  desire  for  change,  characterizing 
the  Russian  nobility  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  con- 
servatism and  social  obstinacy  of  the  Russian  peasant 
on  the  other :  a  difference  of  qualities  which  he  ex- 
plicitly states  cannot  be  imputed  to  difference  of  race. 
'  The  noblesse,"  he  says,  "  were  long  ago  violently 
forced  out  of  their  old  groove  by  the  reforming  Tsars, 
and  since  that  time  they  have  been  so  constantly 
driven  hither  and  thither  by  foreign  influences  that 
they  have  never  been  able  to  form  a  new  one;  thus 
they  easily  enter  upon  any  path  which  seems  to  them 
profitable  or  attractive.  The  great  mass  of  the  people, 
too  heavy  to  be  thus  lifted  out  of  the  guiding  influence 
of  customs  and  tradition,  are  still  animated  with  a 
strongly  conservative  spirit."  Incidentally,  we  are  told 
of  a  colony  of  Greeks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mariupol, 
>on  the  northern  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Azov,  who  "  have 
almost  entirely  forgotten  their  old  language,  but  have 
preserved  their  old  faith."- — "  In  adopting  the  Tartar 
language  they  have  adopted  something  of  Tartar 
indolence  and  apathy  " ;  side  by  side  with  which,  as  an 
evidence  of  the  power  of  environment  and  tradition  as 

79' 


against  race,  we  may  place  the  conclusion  drawn  by 
Mr.  Brailsford  from  a  general  survey  of  the  survival 
and  decadence  of  Hellenism  in  the  East  of  Europe. 
"  Where  Hellenism  is  still  married  to  its  barren  rocks 
and  the  waves  that  cradled  it,  it  lives  triumphant  and 
unspoiled.  Its  decadence  is  only  in  the  ghettos  and 
bazaars  and  the  breathless  city-lanes."  l  Slavism, 
Hellenism,  Germanism  and  the  rest  are  no  appanage 
of  race,  but  the  creation  of  tradition  and  social  circum- 
stance.2 Common  interest  makes  common  patriotism. 
In  Russia  to-day  the  only  power  which  seems  to  have 
any  effective  national  organization  at  all  is  that  of  the 
Bolshevics,  and  that  is  based,  not  upon  racial  or  even, 
in  the  narrower  sense,  nationalistic  conditions,  but  on 
the  most  pervasive  and  appealing  interest  of  all,  the 
desire  to  avenge  the  economic  inequalities  inflicted  by 
a  capitalistic  organization  of  society. 

If  we  leave  Russia  proper  and  glance  at  two  States 
recently  forming  parts  of  the  Russian  Empire,  Finland 
and  Poland,  we  find  that  competent  observers  report 
numerous  facts  bearing  witness  to  the  dominant  im- 
portance of  environment  in  forming  national  character 
and  national  institutions.  Mr.  J.  R.  Fisher,  the  author 
of  Finland  and  the  Tsars,5  while  establishing  the  com- 
parative "  purity  "  of  the  Finnish  "  race,"  makes  it 
quite  clear  that  this  does  not  prevent  them  from  suc- 
•  cumbing  to  the  power  of  external  influence  in  many 
typical  expressions  of  national  character.  "  The  Finns 
clung  obstinately  and  successfully  to  their  nationality 
and  their  language,  to  their  songs  and  their  folk-lore; 
but  in  their  social  and  political  organization,  as  -  in 
their  religion,  they  became  virtually  a  branch  of  the 
Scandinavian  family."  Nor  has  their  identity  of  race 
with  the  Finns  of  Russia  led  to  any  perception,  by 

1  Brailsford's  Macedonia. 

2  Even  such   "  racial "   qualities  as  courage  and  truthfulness,  or 
cowardice  and  lying,  are  products  of  the  social  and  political  environ- 
ment.   Why  are  Christians  in  Turkey  less  truthful  than  Mahometans  ? 
Sir  M.  Wallace  gives  the  answer :  "  In  a  country  where  the  law  does 
not  afford  protection,  the  strong  man  defends  himself  by  his  strength, 
the  wea"k  by  cunning  and  duplicity." 

3  Finland  and  the  Tsars,   1809-1899,  by  Joseph  R.  Fisher,  B.A., 
Barrister-at-Law  (London :    Edward  Arnold,  1899). 

80 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  Finns  of  Finland,  of  their  Russian  nationality.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  political  efforts  of  Alexander  I. 
in  conciliating  Finland  almost  created  the  atmosphere 
of  a  Russian  patriotism  in  the  country.  He  recognized 
fully  that  community  of  interest  is  the  sole  basis  of 
nationality,  and  that  community  of  interest  can  be 
created  by  favourable  modifications  of  the  social 
environment.  "  My  object,"  he  wrote  in  1810,  "  in 
organizing  the  situation  in  Finland,  has  been  to  give 
to  the  people  a  political  existence,  so  that  they  shall 
not  regard  themselves  as  subject  to  Russia,  but  attached 
to  her  by  their  own  evident  interests,  and  for  this 
reason,  not  only  their  civil  laws,  but  also  their  political 
laws,  have  been  retained."  The  truth  of  the  affirma- 
tive position  is  again  corroborated  by  a  negative  example. 
The  reversal  of  Alexander's  policy  by  later  Tsars,  under 
the  inspiration  of  "  the  fanatical  Moscow  party,  with 
its  policy  of  compulsory  Russification,"  and  its  neces- 
sary strengthening  of  the  sense  of  opposing  interest 
between  the  Finns  and  the  Russians,  has  led  at  length 
to  entire  national  separation  between  the  two  countries. 
In  Poland,  too,  the  situation  admits  of  a  similar 
diagnosis.1  Dr.  Brandes  emphasizes  the  well-known 
fact  that  a  common  Slavism  in  Russia  and  Poland  has 
no  unifying  effect  whatever,  whereas  a  difference  of 
religion  presents  an  adamantine  bar  to  amalgamation. 
"  Between  the  Pole  and  the  Russian  rises  the  barrier 
of  religion,  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the  life  of  this 
country."  In  Poland  the  Catholic  religion  is  indis- 
solubly  bound  up  with  the  national  cause,  and,  says 
Dr.  Brandes,  "  without  the  influence  of  the  Catholic 
clergy  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  keep  the  larger 
part  of  the  population,  which  is  excluded  from  the 
higher  culture,  firmly  united  as  a  nationality."  National 
patriotism,  therefore,  is  so  little  a  matter  of  race,  with 
its  burden  of  invariable  and  inevitable  characteristics, 
that,  like  any  other  virtue,  it  can  be  taught  through  the 
intelligence  of  the  cultured  and  the  emotions  of  the 
ignorant.  And  this  teaching  of  patriotism  is  carried 
out  in  all  the  details  of  a  child's  education  and  training. 

1  Poland :   a  Study  of  the  Land,  People  and  Literature,  by  George 
Brandes  (London  :    Wm.  Heinemann,  1903). 
G  81 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

"  Everything  which  the  child  hears  in  the  first  years 
of  his  life  strengthens  this  hatred  and  contempt  for  the 
Russians."  Other  national  characteristics  can  also  be 
taught.  "  The  prejudice  against  work  is  impressed 
upon  the  young  by  the  old,"  just  as  in  England  from 
time  immemorial  the  "  hereditary  tendency  to  drink  " 
has  been  perpetuated  as  part  of  the  social  tradition  of 
successive  generations.  Finally  we  may  quote  as  an 
illustration  of  the  nationalizing  value  of  culture  and 
tradition  a  pregnant  observation  of  Bismarck's — "  ex- 
perience teaches  that  a  Polish  wife  makes  her  husband  a 
Polish  patriot  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  In  future  no 
Prussian  Pole  is  to  be  allowed  to  settle  in  Posen  unless 
he  has  married  a  German  wife ;  for  only  in  this  event  can 
there  be  any  hope  of  Germanizing  him  and  his  children." 

These  various  facts,  gathered  almost  at  random  from 
a  number  of  writers  claiming  special  acquaintance  with 
the  communities  they  describe  and  marked  by  different 
political  views  and  social  sympathies,  may,  perhaps,  be 
accepted  as  illustrating  what  the  author  means  by  that 
community  of  interest  in  which  he  himself  sees  a  solution 
of  the  question.  It  is  his  view  that  community  of 
interest  creates  national  feeling,  and  that  continuity 
of  common  interest  creates  national  history.  It  seems 
clear  from  the  facts  as  so  far  examined  that  in  the 
principle  of  organic  continuity  of  common  interest  we 
can  find  at  once  an  explanation  and  a  justification  of 
the  phenomena  of  nationality  as  they  exist  in  modern, 
and  have  existed  in  ancient,  history.  Such,  at  any 
rate,  is  the  principle  which  it  is  proposed  to  examine 
and  illustrate  in  the  succeeding  pages  of  this  book; 
and  first  of  all  the  writer  would  wish  to  establish  his 
view  as  against  those  who,  having  repudiated  the  racial 
basis  of  nationality,  contend  that  they  have  at  the 
same  time  destroyed  nationality  itself. 

The  most  brilliant  representative  of  this  school  of 
thought,  in  England  or  elsewhere,  is  Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson, 
whose  reputation  as  a  politician  and  administrator  has 
placed  the  crown  upon  his  long  career  as  an  original 
thinker  and  a  powerful  writer.1  Mr.  Robertson  main- 

1  The  Evolution  of  States ;  An  Introduction  to  English  Politics,  by 
J.  M.  Robertson  (Watts  &  Co.,  1912). 

82 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

tains  that  as  there  is  no  racial  conscience,  no  racial 
achievement,  no  racial  genius,  so  there  is '  no  national 
conscience,  no  national  achievement,  no  national  genius ; 
explanations     of    "  national     character "     are     merely 
scholastic  disputations  about  nothing ;  fantastic  lucubra- 
tions like  those  indulged  in  by  the  ecclesiastical  school- 
men who  wasted  five  hundred  good  years  of  human  effort 
over  the  non-existent  abstractions  of  pseudo- Aristotelian 
philosophy.     On  a  previous  page  it  has  been  suggested 
that,  were  there  no  such  thing  as  nationality  or  national 
character,  it  would  be  necessary  to  revise  all  our  con- 
ceptions of  human  development  and  to  rewrite  all  our 
histories  of  human  progress.     Mr.  Robertson  does  not 
shrink  from  this  conclusion,  and  with  admirable  bold- 
ness and  consistency  sets  out  to  rewrite  human  history 
accordingly.     With  Mr.   Robertson's   condemnation   of 
the  pride  of  racial  nationality  it  is  impossible  not  to 
agree.     But  the  writer  regrets  that  he  is  not  able  to 
follow  him  when  he  unites  in  the  same  condemnation 
the  "  instinct  "  of  racial  pride  with  the  conception  of 
national  solidarity.1     When  he  says  that  "  the  principle 
of  nationality   stands   in  large   part   for   an   irrational 
instinct,  if  not  for  a  positive  hallucination,"  we  agree 
with  the  statement  as  a  criticism  of  the  racial  instinct 
which  so  many  people  conceive  to  underlie  the  principle 
of  nationality;    but  when  he  adds,  "the  nation,  con- 
sidered as  a  continuous  and  personalized  organism,  is 
in  large  measure  a  metaphysical  dream,"  2   we   cannot 
accept  his  position,  unless  the  word  "  personalized  "  is 
used  in  a  literal  sense,  a  sense  in  which  even  the  racial 
extremists    do    not    use    it.     Mr.    Robertson    criticizes 
Comte  and  Buckle  for  ^making   history   a  "  Jonsonian 
masque  of  personified  abstractions,"  and  is  severe  with 

1  The  Evolution  of  States,  p.  260.  "  We  have  seen  how  erudite 
specialists  can  express  themselves  in  terms  of  the  fallacy  of  racial 
genius.  Specialists  perhaps  as  erudite,  and  certainly  multitudes  of 
educated  people,  seem  capable  of  thinking  as  positively  in  terms  of 
the  hallucinations  of  racial  en,tity,  national  consciousness,  political 
greatness,  national  revenue  and  imperial  success."  (Italics  not  Mr. 
Robertson's).  See  also  p.  251  of  An  Introduction  to  English  Politics 
(1900),  an  earlier  version  of  The  Evolution  of  States. 

3  The  Evolution  of  States,  p.  258.  "Essentially  a  metaphysical 
dream  "  in  the  Introduction  to  English  Politics  (p.  252). 

83 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Lord  Bryce  because,  by  an  easy  and  natural  analogy, 
he  personifies  Rome,  and  speaks  of  that  State  as  "  she  " 
and  "  her."  x  We  do  not  score  a  merely  verbal  point 
when  we  observe  that  Mr.  Robertson  alludes  to  Venice 
and  Florence  and  other  States  under  the  same  feminine 
personal  pronoun;  2  the  practice  simply  illustrates  how 
natural  and  easy  it  is  to  use  a  personalizing  metaphor 
when  speaking  of  national  or  political  aggregations ;  and 
no  criticism  which  Mr.  Robertson  has  directed  on  this 
ground  against  two  historical  writers  out  of  every  three 
but  is  directed  with  equal  propriety  against  himself.  He 
charges  Taine  with  missing  the  truth  when  he  speaks 
of  the  French  nation  as  "  we,"  in  indicating  the  failure 
of  that  people  to  find  a  constitution  which  suited  them. 
"At  no  moment  were  all  of  the  French  people  con- 
senting parties  to  any  one  'of  the  thirteen  constitutions. 
Then  there  was  no  collective  failure."  3  But  surely  no 
one  can  deny  that  it  is  a  common  interest  of  all  French- 
men to  find  a  constitution  which  suits  them,  since  they 
all  individually  are  affected  by  it,  as  they  have  to  live 
under  it;  and  the  failure  of  each  one  of  the  thirteen 
constitutions  was  surely  due  to  the  mental  attitude 
assumed  towards  it  by  Frenchmen  in  general.  All 
wanted  a  constitution  that  all  could  live  under  as 
Frenchmen.  That  general  or  collective  need  is  not 
nullified  because  each  of  the  thirteen  attempts  only 
satisfied  it  in  part :  that  they  failed  proves  rather  that 
they  were  partial,  and  the  fact  that  they  were  partial 
proves  the  existence  of  a  general  demand;  in  other 
words,  of  a  national  demand. 

In  a  really  attractive  passage  Mr.  Robertson  tells 
us  how,  "  in  the  story  of  Hellas,  Sparta  stands  almost 
alone  among  the  peoples  as  yielding  no  foothold  to  the 
life  of  the  mind,  bare  of  nearly  all  memory  of  beauty, 
indigent  in  all  that  belongs  to  the  spirit,  morally  sterile 
as  steel." 4  And  then  we  have  Sparta  as  a  whole 
charged  with  "  a  spirit  of  peculiar  separateness  and 
arrogance,"  as  an  example  of  which  is  given  the  legal 
prohibition  of  native  Spartans  to  go  abroad  without 

1  The  Evolution  of  States,  p.  4. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  208  (Florence),  p.  205  (Pisa),  p.  229  (Venice),  and  numerous 
other  places.  3  Ibid.,  p.  2.  4  Ibid.,  p.  130. 

84 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

special  leave.1  But  the  fact  that  legal  prohibition  was 
necessary  proves  that  all  Spartans  did  not  share  in  the 
spirit  of  arrogance  to  that  extent,  as,  indeed,  we  know 
from  other  sources  to  have  been  the  case.  But  why 
M.  Taine  should  be  described  as  missing  the  truth  when 
he  speaks  of  France  in  the  same  collective  way  as  Mr. 
Robertson  speaks  of  Sparta,  it  is  indeed  difficult  to 
understand. 

Mr.  Robertson  speaks  elsewhere  of  the  "  wincing 
sense  of  humiliation  and  disgrace  felt  by  multitudes 
of  a  great  aggregate  over  military  repulses  at  the  hands 
of*  extremely  small  and  primitive  groups,"  and  the 
humiliation  and  disgrace  is  admittedly  a  "  collective  " 
emotion.2  It  is  difficult  to  see  that  in  this  connexion 
there  is  anything  more  than  a  verbal  distinction  between 
saying  that  "  a  great  aggregate "  is  humiliated  by 
defeat  and  saying  that  "  a  great  nation  "  is  humiliated 
by  defeat.  When  we  say  that  this  "  collective  emotion  " 
is  wrongly  based  upon  racial  pride  we  do  not  get  away 
from  the  fact  of 'the  emotion;  we  only  suggest  that  it 
may  have  a  more  rational  justification.  Mr.  Robertson 
is  anxious  to  indicate  the  organic  connexion  of  all 
social  processes  in  different  countries;  but  it  seems  an 
unhappy  way  of  starting  to  find  the  organic  connexion 
of  these  processes  in  different  countries  with  a  denial  of 
their  organic  connexion  in  the  same  country. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  while  /Mr.  Robertson 
rightly  condemns  the  conception  of  racial  genius  as 
determining  nationality,  he  is  too  severe  in  his  repudia- 
tion of  that  general  organic  unity  and  continuity  which 
furnish  a  reasonable  explanation  and  justification  for 
the  nationalistic  conception.  We  are  grateful  to  Mr. 
Robertson  for  the  phrase  in  which  he  repudiates  "  the 
nation  considered  as  a  continuous  organism,"  3  because 
it  is  just  in  that  very  continuity  of  national  life  that 
we  recognize  the  principle  which  gives  meaning  to 

1  The  Evolution  of  States,  p.  132.  2  Ibid.,  p.  262-3. 

^3  Ibid.,  p.  258,  Part  V.  chap.  i.  "The  Ideas  of  Nationality  and 
National  Greatness."  This  chapter,  which  contains  a  brief  but  clear 
and  cogent  statement  of  Mr.  Robertson's  general  position,  explicitly 
identifies  racial  pride  with  national  pride,  an  identification  implied, 
even  when  not  expressed,  throughout  the  rest  of  the  book. 

85 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

history,  and  makes  national  consciousness  inevitable 
and,  within  proper  limits,  justifiable.  Mr.  Robertson 
himself  rewrites  history  under  the  old  titles,  "  Rome," 
"  Greece,"  "  Italy,"  "  Anglo-Saxon  England,"  etc., 
etc.,  and  each  chapter,  under  its  separate  title,  gives 
an-  account  of  the  continuous  evolutionary  process 
represented  by  the  historical  events  dealt  with.  Each 
chapter  is  a  lesson  in  national  continuity,  which  is 
only  saying  that  events  in  national  history  do  not 
happen  at  random  or  in  vacua.  When  we  treat  of  the 
separate  histories  of  nations  it  is  because  the  nations 
have  separate  histories ;  separate  histories  are  separate 
histories  because  they  exhibit  separate  characteristics, 
i.  e.  separate  series  of  relationships  between  the  mind 
of  the  people  and  its  environment.  And  if  you  define 
history  as  the  record  of  the  operation  of  social  processes, 
mental,  moral  and  material,  as  Mr.  Robertson  defines 
it,»  upon  what  principle  are  you  to  deny  the  fact  that  a 
group  of  human  personalities,  subjected  to  the  operation 
of  the  same  social  processes,  takes  a  collective  interest 
in  their  effect  upon  itself,  and  in  its  effect  upon 
them  ?  The  history  of  every  people  represents  a  separate 
stream  of  continuity  of  national  life;  and  the  national 
adjective,  English,  French,  etc.,  which  signifies  separate- 
ness  from  other  peoples  signifies  also  continuity  and 
identity  of  interest  for  the  people  it  includes.  That 
the  adjectives  are  not  always  scientifically  accurate  in 
their  connotation,  or  ethically  just  in  their  implication, 
does  not  alter  the  substantial  truth  of  the  position  : 
they  signify  different  groupings  of  national  continuity. 
If,  in  accordance  with  Ratzel's  theory,  we  explain,  as 
it  seems  clear  we  must  explain,  the  differences  between 
the  Hottentot  and  the  Frenchman  by  the  difference 
between  the  effect  produced  upon  the  natural  endow- 
ment by  a  primitive  and  savage  environment  on  the 
one  hand,  and  an  intricate,  elaborate  and  highly  civilized 
environment  on  the  other,  then  also  must  we  explain 
the  differences  between  Frenchman  and  German,  be- 
tween Germans  and  English,  by  an  argument  which 
recognizes  the  differences  between  the  environments  of 
peoples  all  highly  civilized.  So  far  as  the  environment 
of  European  peoples  has  been  different,  it  follows  that 

86 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

to  that  extent  their  character  as   a  people  must  be 
different,  and  the  mystery  would  be  to  t  find  them  the 
same.     There    is    no    question    here    of   heredity.     No 
historical  European  community  has  had  a  long  enough 
record  to  develop  any  fundamental  physical  variation, 
let  alone  any  mental   variation,   which  could  become 
part  of  the  hereditary  stock  of  the 'people.     Historical 
times,  at  any  rate,  have  witnessed  no  alteration  in  the 
intellectual  or  moral  character  of  a  people  as  handed 
down  by  racial  heredity.     It  is  quite  possible  to  admit 
that  the  cerebral  convolutions  of  a  modern  professor  of 
sociology  are  more  complicated  and  delicate  than  those 
of  a  scholastic  divine  of  the  twelfth  century,  although 
one  is  driven  to  admit  a  family  resemblance  between 
them  when  one  recalls  the  exquisite  piece  of  casuistry 
by  which  Mr.  Norman  Angell  proves  that  physical  force 
is  not  physical  force  when  it  is  only  used  to  repel  physical 
force.1     It  is  even  easy  to  admit  that  the  whole  of  the 
present    generation    of    educated    Europeans    possess 
brains  of  superior  physical   structure   and  intellectual 
power  as  compared  with  their  predecessors  of  a  thousand 
years  ago.     But  to  admit  this  is  not  to  imply  that  the 
modern  superiority  is  the  result  of  a  gradually  accumu- 
lating series  of  improvements  which  have  been  impressed 
upon  the  brains  of  one  generation  after  another  until 
they  were  finally  handed  down  by  heredity.     No,  the 
hereditary    anatomy    has    remained    the    same;     the 
natural    intellectual    capacity    has    not    been    racially 
modified;    but  we  have  from  our  birth  upwards  been 
accustomed  to  exercise  our  wits  upon  so  much  more 
complicated  a  world   of  material    that    superiority    of 
intellectual   power   is   acquired  from   more   active   and 
subtle   cerebral   exercise.     Each   succeeding  generation 
does  not  hand  down  to  its  successors  a  superior  brain ; 
but  it  hands   down  the   acquisitions  and  achievements 
of  its  own  brain,  the  result  of  its  co-operation  with  the 
environment,    hands    them    down,   not    by    hereditary 
descent,  but  by  historical  tradition.     And  it  also  hands 
down  the  acquisitions  and  achievements  of  the  genera- 
tions  that   preceded   it :     each    succeeding   generation 

1  War    and    the   Essential  Realities     (Conway   Memorial   Lecture, 
1913),  pp.  36  sqq.  (London  :   Watts  &  Co.). 

87 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

having  thus  a  larger,  richer,  broader,  deeper  environ- 
ment than  its.  predecessors.  And  with  this  progressive 
change  of  intellectual  and  moral  development  our 
character,  as  a  generation,  exhibits  aspects  and  qualities 
which  differentiate  it  from  previous  generations,  although 
it  is  an  inevitable  result  of  the  process  of  tradition  that 
there  is  sameness  and  continuity  as  well  as  diversity 
and  development.  We  use  the  same  tools,  but  we 
polish  them  by  use  to  a  greater  perfection,  and  we  work 
on  a  more  various  and  complicated  material.  And  we 
produce  different  results,  learning  ever  more  expert 
and  delicate  ways  of  using  our  material.1  The  skill 
which  built  barrows  is  educated  by  the  environment 
into  the  skill  which  builds  cathedrals;  and  the  power 
to  scratch  the  figures  of  living  animals  upon  the  bones 
of  dead  ones  becomes  the  power  to  paint  Madonnas  or 
post-impressionist  pictures. 

These  considerations,  we  think,  serve  to  explain  the 
similarity  of  character  that  marks  the  growth  of  an 
historic  nation;  and  they  also  explain  the  differences 
which  develop  from  generation  to  generation.  So  that, 
while  we  recognize  the  differences  between  Shake- 
speare's England  and  Milton's  England  and  Shelley's 
England,  it  is  Shakespeare's  and  Milton's  and  Shelley's 
England  all  the  time,  and  it  is  our  own  England  as 
well. 

And,  finally,  these  considerations  furnish  a  reason- 
able explanation  for  the  existence  of  the  phenomenon 
of  nationality.  A  nation  arises  when  for  a  considerable 
time,  allied  by  kin  or  not,  people  have  been  subjected 
to  the  same  general  environment.  This  identity  of 
environment  operates  upon  the  natural  capacity  of  the 
people  so  as  to  produce  results  in  which  they  have  a 
common  interest.  A  fellow  feeling  makes  us  wondrous 
kind.  A  general  tradition  is  formed,  and  gathers 
strength;  other  groups,  from  various  causes,  may 

1  "The  Russian  Dvoryanin  easily  learned  the  language  and  as- 
sumed the  manners  of  the  French  "  gentilhomme,'*  and  succeeded  in 
changing  his  physical  and  intellectual  exterior;  but  all  those  deeper 
and  more  delicate  parts  of  human  nature  which  are  formed  by  the 
accumulated  experience  of  past  generations  could  not  be  so  easily 
and  rapidly  changed." — Sir  M.  Wallace  (Russia), 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

be  brought  within  the  same  sphere  of  interest;  the 
nation  grows  and  strengthens,  and  the  process  of 
traditionary  consolidation  begins  and  continues  in 
the  manner  described.  The  common  environment,  in 
co-operation  with  the  common  intellectual  and  moral 
capacity,  creates  a  community  of  interest,  and,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  strength  of  this  common  interest  in  the 
common  tradition  and  the  common  achievement,  the 
national  life  is  vividly  felt  and  strongly  expressed.  It 
follows  from  this  that  nations  may  exist  within  nations ; 
that  Wales  and  Scotland  and  Ireland  may  be  legiti- 
mately conscious  of  their  nationality;  because  within 
the  sphere  of  the  wider  British  interest  they  nourish 
their  own  special  national  tradition.  Hence  the  wisdom 
of  the  Liberal  recognition  of  Welsh  nationality,  and 
the  doubt  which  one  feels  as  to  the  wisdom  of  com- 
pelling North-East  Ulster  to  share  in  the  national 
tradition  of  Ireland,  in  preference  to  the  national  tra- 
dition of  England,  which  its  people  are  the  more  keenly 
conscious  of.  • 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  nationality  is  not  an 
hallucination,  not  a  metaphysical  conception,  but  an 
institution  based  upon  practical  realities,  upon  the 
facts  of  historical  development,  and  upon  the  demands 
of  human  experience.  The  principle  of  nationality 
stands  no  longer  for  an  irrational  instinct;  the  feeling 
of  national  solidarity  is  a  reasonable  sentiment — nay, 
an  argued  conviction — as  sound  and  forcible  as  any 
other  relationship  based  upon  organic  community  and 
continuity  of  interest.  Continuity  of  national  character 
is  a  natural  and  intelligible  process,  and:  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  mental  environment,  the  social,  political, 
literary,  artistic,  religious  and  philosophical  tradition 
of  one  generation  in  the  series  becomes  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  intelligence,  the  mental  activity,  of  the 
next  generation,  which  in  its  turn  adds  something, 
smaller  or  greater,  to  the  current  which  then  flows 
onward,  constantly  deepening  and  broadening,  but  re- 
taining for  the  whole  period  of  the  national  existence 
some  portion  of  the  environment  of  habit  and  custom 
which  surrounded  its  source.  The  use  which  the 
national  genius  makes  of  the  national  tradition  stamps 

89 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  character  of  the  national  life  of  the  period.  It 
may  accept  the  tradition  in  an  entirely  acquiescent 
spirit;  it  may  combine  it  and  re-combine  it  in  forms 
of  startling  novelty;  it  may  repudiate  and  neglect 
this  part  or  seize  with  grateful  eagerness  upon  another 
part;  it  may  approve  the  wisdom  or  expose  the  folly 
of  this  or  that  constituent  element.  To  one  part  it 
may  apply  daring  courage;  to  another  part  cautious 
prudence;  here  it  will  be  conservative,  there  revo- 
lutionary; but  all  its  actions  and  attitudes  will  be 
stamped  by  a  broad  similarity,  due  to  the  fact  that  all 
are  members  of  the  community,  all  have  been  cradled 
in  the  common  tradition,  have  been  steeped  in  it  from 
their  birth,  have  learned  their  earliest  and  most  lasting 
lessons  from  it,  have  sharpened  their  tools  of  wit  and 
satire  upon  it,  and  have  learned  from  it  the  habit  of 
criticizing  and  even  repudiating  it. 

And  herein  lies  the  secret  of  why,  with  all  their 
fundamental  similarities,  no  two  successive  generations 
are  ever  exactly  alike.  The  constantly  accruing  differ- 
ences in  the  national  tradition  furnish  new  fields  of 
exercise  to  the  national  intellect,  and  since  national 
character  is  the  result  of  the  interaction  of  the  national 
genius  and  the  national  environment,  it  follows  that  any 
accretion  to  the  environment  brings  with  it  a  fresh 
development  of  character.  Hence  it  happens  that  a 
nation,  even  apart  from  those  foreign  influences  which 
are  most  effective  in  developing  national  character, 
owing  to  the  new  material  they  bring  into  the  national 
environment — even  apart  from  these,  a  nation  may 
exhibit  a  continuously  progressive  development  towards 
a  fuller  and  richer  life.  Nature,  fond  as  she  is  of  stamp- 
ing a  uniform  type  upon  the  species,  can  never  lose  her 
fecundity  of  individual  differences.  The  play  of  intel- 
lect upon  environment  within  the  limits  of  the  national 
genius  operates  to  produce  delicate  distinctions  in  the 
manipulation  of  the  same  material,  which,  seized  upon 
by  other  minds  in  the  community,  may  produce  results 
profoundly  modifying  the  general  character  of  the  en- 
vironment. We  can  see  this  principle  Operating  even 
in  the  most  primitive  communities.  "  Among  the 
Kayans  and  other  peoples  (of  Borneo)  sceptics  are  to 

90 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

be  found,  and  as  no  inquisitorial  methods  are  in  vogue 
among  them,  such  persons  will  on  occasion  give  expres- 
sion to  their  doubts  about  the  accepted  dogmas,  although 
speech  about  such  topics  is  generally  repressed  by  some 
touch  of  awe.  One  man,  for  example,  argued  in  our 
hearing  that  he  could  hardly  believe  that  man  con- 
tinues to  exist  after  death,  for,  said  he,  if  men  and 
women  still  lived  after  death,  some  of  those  who  had 
been  very  fond  of  their  children  would  surely  return  to 
see  them,  and  would  in  some  way  be  perceived  by  the 
living.  But  all  such  discussions  are  usually  terminated 
by  the  remark  '  Nusi  jam  ?  '  (Who  knows  ?)."  *  This 
spontaneous  exhibition  of  scepticism  in  the  very  bosom 
of  the  nurturing  orthodox  tradition  is,  as  we  know, 
capable  not  only  of  modifying  the  religion  of  a  race, 
but  its  entire  outlook  upon  the  facts  of  life  and  the 
uses  to  which  it  applies  its  knowledge.  So  true  is  it 
that  Nature  plants  a  principle  of  difference  in  the  very 
citadel  of  uniformity.  , 

An  isolated  self-centred  nation,  if  such  were  possible, 
need  not,  therefore,  be  a  stationary  unprogressive  nation. 
Given  Nature's  universal  endowment  of  energy  and 
inquisitiveness,  most  of  the  theoretical  and  practical 
problems  of  life  would  be  solved  in  time,  and  the  national 
character  might  develop  rapidly  from  stage  to  stage, 
until  a  high  standard  of  achievement  and  a  complex 
degree  of  civilization  had  been  obtained.  Every  person 
in  a  community  forms  part  of  the  environment  of  every 
other  person;  and  Nature  Varies  the  individual  almost 
ad  infinitum.  But,  after  all,  the  main  factors  in  the 
progress  of  a  nation  have  been  those  great  accretions 
to  its  environment  effected  by  the  interminglings  of 
other  national  civilizations  with  its  own,  and  it  is  to 
an  account  of  our  own  national  history  in  this  respect 
that  it  is  proposed  to  turn  for  further  light  upon  the 
subject  of  these  studies. 

1  The  precise  reference  to  this  interesting  passage  has,  unfortunately, 
been  lost.  It  is  taken  from  a  volume  of  travels  in  Borneo,  published 
about  1912. 


91 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Progress  of  Civilization  dependent  upon  progressive  Complexity, 
of  the  social  Tradition,  not  upon  progressive  Complexity  of 
hereditary  racial  Endowment — Mixture  of  Races  means  Com- 
mingling of  social  Traditions — The  earliest  Communities  in 
Britain — The  Commingling  of  Traditions  as  shown  by  the  Study 
of  Ethnology — The  Celts  a  highly  composite  People — The  Process 
of  Commingling  of  Traditions  continued  by  the  Roman  Occupa- 
tion and  the  Anglo-Saxon  Invasion — Continuity  of  Tradition 
from  prehistoric  to  historical  Times. 

THE  view  thus  propounded  that  the  increasing 
wealth;  vigour  and  refinement  of  social  achievement 
are  due  to  the  growing  complexity  of  the  social  en- 
vironment acting  upon  a  mental  endowment  which, 
so  far  as  racial  heredity  is  concerned,  is  practically 
constant  and  unvarying,  suggests  an  explanation  of 
human  progress  at  once  more  natural,  reasonable  and 
consistent  than  any  given  by  the  racial  theories  which 
we  have  hitherto  examined.  While  it  is  free,  on  the 
one  hand,  from  the  absurdity  of  envisaging  the  "  un- 
changeable soul  of  a  people  "  as  serenely,  if  stubbornly, 
superior  to  all  the  flood  of  environmental  experience 
which  rolls  in  vain  about  its  everlasting  pedestal, 
maintaining  »its  "  racial  purity  "  unsoiled  by  contact 
with  mundane  concerns,  like  some  Epicurean  god  on 
its  Olympian  hill :  it  is  not,  on  the  other  hand,  liable 
to  the  charge  that  it  shatters  the  gradual  continuity 
of  natural  evolution  by  assigning  sudden  changes  of 
national  character  to  equally  sudden  changes  in  the 
hereditary  structure  of  the  national  brain.  Such  is 
the  native  adaptability  of  the  general  human  endow- 
ment that  immediate  vicissitudes  of  experience  can 
evoke  immediate  responses  in  the  subject  mind :  a 
result  not  less  natural  in  a  community  than  daily 
occurrences  show  it  to  be  in  the  individual  citizen. 
Fresh  national  experiences  create  new  phases  of  national 
character,  which  disappear  when  they  have  survived 

92 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  emergency  that  provoked  them.  Indeed,  the  pro- 
gress of  social  development  would  be  as  intolerably 
tedious  as  it  is  now  inconceivably  rapid  were  it  de- 
pendent upon  the  acquisition  of  new  hereditary  capacities 
to  cope  with  a  constantly  varying  environment;  and 
all  the  processes  of  civilization  would  be  hampered  by 
the  constant  sense  of  dis -harmony  which  would  be  felt 
when  social  changes  left  the  newly-acquired  hereditary 
gift  in  the  lurch.  It  is,  therefore,  both  natural  and 
reasonable  to  envisage  social  and  political  progress  as 
depending  upon  a  constantly  changing  environment, 
affecting,  and  being  in  turn  affected  by,  a  physical  and 
mental  endowment  whose  powers,  while  constant  and 
equable,  are  readily  adaptable  to  hitherto  untried 
external  conditions. 

And  not  only  is  this  view  more  reasonable  and 
natural,  but  it  gives  an  entirely  fresh  charm  and 
significance  to  the  commingling  of  peoples,  which  has 
hitherto  been  one  of  the  most  wearisome  and  perplex- 
ing problems  of  sociology.  The  commingling  of  peoples 
presents  no  longer  the  inextricable  problem  of  ascer- 
taining how  far  the  "hereditary  racial  qualities  "  of 
two  mixed  communities  were  involved  in  the  combina- 
tion :  a  problem  which,  in  no  single  case,  has  been 
solved  in  the  same  way  by  any  two  inquirers.  Instead 
of  having  to  guess  at  the  answer  to  this  fantastic  and 
really  insoluble  conundrum,  we  are  faced  with  the 
more  intelligent  and  interesting  task  of  investigating 
the  historical  environments,  the  traditional  cultures, 
of  -the  commingling  communities,  and  tracking  the 
current  of  their  development  in  the  new  conditions 
resulting  from  the  amalgamation  of  previously  separated 
social  organizations.  We  turn  from  riddles  to  realities ; 
from  Fate  to  Freedom.  If  human  life  is  a  drama,  it 
is  Euripidean  rather  than  JEschylean.  Individuals  and 
communities  are  not  the  victims  of  an  inscrutable  and 
ineluctable  fate,  but  intelligent  as  well  as  sentient 
beings,  active  as  well  as  passive  organisms,  whose 
energies  are  motived  by  conscious  purpose  and  directed 
to  voluntary  and,  therefore,  ethical  ends.  If  man  is 
moulded  by  his  environment,  he  moulds  it  in  his  turn; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  a  patent  fact  that  a  highly  important 

93 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

factor  in  any  man's  environment  is  supplied  by  the 
material,  intellectual  and  moral  activities  of  the  persons 
with  whom  he  comes  into  contact;  whose  actions  in- 
spire him,  whose  books  instruct  him,  whose  artistic 
creations  soothe  and  elevate  him.  The  comedy  or 
tragedy  of  human  life  consists  in  the  play  and  interplay 
of  human  interests  based  upon  human  motives;  racial 
fatalism,  with  its  summary  cutting  of  the  knot  it  cannot 
loosen,  is  an  artificial  erection,  a  deus  ex  machind,  fit 
only  for  Euripidean  sarcasm. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  writer  now 
proposes  to  describe  the  development  of  nationality 
and  national  character  in  his  native  country,  although 
he  hopes  to  tell  the  story  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it 
clear  that  he  is  illustrating  a  general  principle  of  human 
evolution  operating  in  every  community,  and  applicable 
to  every  sphere  of  social,  political,  economic  and  artistic 
activity. 

Whether  or  not  new  blood  introduces  new  national 
qualities,  it  is  certain  that  those  who  have  the  new 
blood  introduce  a  new  environment,  and  the  first 
requisite,  in  studying  the  character  of  an  admittedly 
mixed  people  like  the  English,  is  to  ascertain  the  nature 
of  the  elements  which  at  an  early  stage  of  our  history 
combined  to  lay  the  historical  foundations  of  our 
people.  We  must  first,  therefore,  summarize  for  our 
own  purposes  some  well  -known  facts  as  to  the  various 
peoples  who  have  met  together  on  British  soil,  less 
with  a  view  to  emphasizing  the  different  elements  in 
our  blood  than  to  suggesting  the  number  of  different 
environments  which  have  combined  to  form  that  in 
which  we  now  live. 

There  are  some  writers  who  think  that  they  have 
solved  the  question  of  the  evolution  of  the  English 
national  character  when  they  say,  as  Grant  Allen  and 
many  others  say,  that  in  blood  any  given  modern 
Englishman  is  a  joint  product  of  the  Saxon  and  the 
Celt,  whose  respective  characters  they  describe  with 
great  confidence  and  an  abundance  of  minute  detail.1 
But  even  the  most  ,cautious  ethnologists  assert  that 
neither  British  Celt  nor  British  Anglo-Saxon  was  of 
1  Anglo-Saxon  Britain,  by  Grant  Allen,  p.  70. 
94 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

pure  descent.  Grant  Allen  himself  knew  that  the  Celts 
mixed  largely  in  Britain  "  with  one  or  more  long- 
skulled,  dark-haired,  black-eyed,  and  brown-complex- 
ioned  races,"  l  and  recent  anthropological  researches 
have  amplified  the  bearing  of  these  remarks.  It  is 
really  surprising  to  find  how  many  separate  peoples- 
have  been  contributory  sources  to  our  national  en- 
vironment. Even  if  we  disregard  the  fascinating  possi- 
bility that  Palaeolithic  man,  who  inhabited  these  islands 
at  the  close  of  the  Quaternary  period,  some  80,000 
years  ago,  left  representatives  to  meet  and  mingle 
with  the  earliest  invaders  of  the  New  Stone  Age,  it 
is  certain  that  an  unbroken  continuity  of  occupation, 
and,  therefore,  of  tradition,  has  been  maintained  here 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Neolithic  period,  which 
is  placed  by  Palseontological  experts  at  not  later  than 
10,000  years  ago.  People  after  people  has  entered 
the  country,  each  with  its  own  special  tradition  or 
environment  the  result  of  its  own  previous  history,  and 
has  formed  a  living  link  in  the  continuous  chain  of 
national  development — et  quasi  cursores  vital  lampada 
tradunt. 

First  came,  and  probably  from  Gaul,  the  so-called 
Iberians,  who  originally  dwelt  in  caves,  and  who  have 
left  their  long  barrows  in  Britaiji  and  their  sepulchral 
caverns  in  France  and  Spain.  They  were  a  short,  dark, 
long-headed  race,  with  oval  faces,  regular  features  and 
fragile  frames,  and,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Palaeo- 
lithic survivals,  were  in  sole  occupation  of  Britain  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  New  Stone  Age.  Dr.  Thurnam 
is  of  opinion  that  they  beloriged  to  the  same  stock  as 
the  Spanish  Basques,  and  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor,  who  accepts 
Thurnam's  conclusion,  gives  them  African  relation- 
ships, and  states  that  they  are  represented  to-day,  not 
only  by  the  Spanish  Basques,  but  also  by  the  Corsicans 
and  some  inhabitants  of  Wales  and  Ireland.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  New  Stone  Age  these  were  followed 
by  a  tall  and  strong,  red-haired,  round-headed  folk,  who 
dwelt  in  huts  and  knew  the  use  of  metals.  They  built 
the  round  barrows  in  England,  and  left  their  graves 
in  Belgium,  Gaul  and  Denmark.  Their  affinities  are 
1  Grant  Allen,  p.  56. 
95 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Ugric,  and  to  the  same  race  are  assigned  the  modern 
Danes  and  Slavs,  as  well  as  some  of  the  modern  Irish. 
These  were  the  first  Aryan-speaking  people  of  Britain. 
Prof.  Rolleston  describes  them  as  of  the  "  Turanian  " 
type,  while  Primer-Bey  classes  them  as  "  Mongoloid."  l 
They  had  probably  expelled  the  oval-faces  from  Gaul, 
and  then  followed  them  eventually  into  Britain,  there 
to  mingle  their  blood  and  their  civilization.  Then 
came  members  of  the  so-called  "  Scandinavian  "  race, 
the  tall,  long-headed  people  of  the  Row  Graves  and  the 
Kitchen  Middens,  with  light  hair,  blue  eyes  and  white 
skin,  the  fathers,  it  is  said,  especially  of  the  modern 
Frisians  and  the  fair  North  German  folk.  Then  we 
find  people  with  forms  of  milder  cast,  the  people  of  the 
so-called  Alpine  or  Ligurian  race,  with  broad  heads  and 
black  hair,  and  related  to  the  Lapps  and  Finns.  To- 
day we  find  people  like  them,  said  by  the  ethnologists 
to  be  their  descendants,  in  Savoy,  Auvergne  and 
Switzerland.  All  these  invaded  Britain  in  the  Neo- 
lithic Age,  all  intermarrying  at  last  and  intermingling, 
the  latest  with  the  earliest  and  with  the  intermediate 
arrivals.  These  were  the  people  of  Britain  before 
ever  a  Celt  in  the  historic  sense  came  nearer  than 
Gaul. 

Upon  these  curiously  intermingled  races  came  at 
last  the  Celtic  Invasion  :  the  Celts  of  European  history, 
who  are  known  to  have  been  formed  of  three  great 
tribes  called  Celts,  Goidels  and  Brythons,  who  mingled 
freely  with  each  other,  and  had  also  intermingled  with 
two  already  intermingled  Neolithic  tribes  in  Gaul. 
These  were  the  people  who,  establishing  themselves  in 
Britain,  and  intermarrying  with  the  mixed  peoples 
already  there,  formed  the  so-called  Celts  of  Britain, 
who  faced  the  Roman  legions  which  Julius  Caesar 
brought  with  him  before  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  Era.  "  Everywhere  in  Britain,"  says  Dr. 
Rice  Holmes,  "  the  pre-Roman  stocks  have  in  greater 
or  less  proportion  survived.  Few  Englishmen  or 
Scotsmen,  if  their  pedigrees  could  be  traced  back  far 
enough,  would  not  be  found  to  contain  among  their 
ancestors  men  of  the  type  who  were  buried  in  long 
*  Isaac  Taylor,  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  p.  70. 
96 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

barrows,  sturdy  warriors  of  the  Bronze  Age,  and  Celts 
who  fought  against  Caesar  or  were  subdued  by  Agricola."  * 
At  this  point  in  the  long  story  the  so-called  "history 
of  England"  begins,  and  the  tale  of  foreign  intrusions 
becomes  more  complicated  still.  The  influence  of  the 
Roman  Conquest  in  modifying  the  environment  of  all 
the  peoples  the  Empire  reduced  beneath  her  sway  is 
easily  admitted  in  its  broad  and  striking  lines.  But 
if  we  glance  at  some  of  its  less  conspicuous  details  its 
operation  becomes  more  striking  still.  What  of  the 
special  environmental  influence  exercised  by  the  long 
list  of  Roman  subject  peoples  who  garrisoned  our  shores 
in  settled  military  colonies,  and  who,  beneath  the  out- 
side show  of  civilization  and  military  discipline,  repre- 
sented less  the  environment  of  Rome  than  that  of 
some  semi-savage  tribe?  We  have,  e.g.  Sarmatians  in 
Essex,  Tungrians  at  Dover,  Spaniards  at  Pevensey, 
Belgians  at  Reculver,  Stablesians  (from  Germany)  at 
Burgh  Castle,  Dalmatians  in  Lincolnshire,  Pannonians 
at  Doncaster,  an  African  tribe  at  Moresby,  the  Nervii 
at  Ambleside,  Cilicians  at  Greta  Bridge,  Portuguese  at 
Pierce  Bridge,  more  Belgians  at  Wallsend,  Asturians 
at  Benwell,  Quadi,  Marcomanni  and  Dacians,  Moors 
and  Thracians  elsewhere.2  Is  it  possible  to  imagine 
that  these  representatives  of  various  degrees  of  tribal 
civilization  did  not  add  to  the  complexity  of  the 
environment  of  the  native  British  people  ?  And  what 
is  probable  with  regard  to  the  military  element 
introduced  by  Rome  is  equally  so  of  the  commercial 
and  professional.  "  Not  only  the  numbers,"  says 
Dr.  Hodgkin,  "  but  the  nationality  of  these  vanished 
dwellers  by  the  Tyne  and  Irthing  strike  us  by  their 

1  Ancient  Britain  and  the  Invasions  of  Julius  Ccesar,  by  T.  Rice 
Holmes  (Clarendon  Press,  1907),  p.  456. 

2  The  particulars  in  the  text  are  from  the  Notitia  Imperil,  "  composed 
under  Theodosius  the  Younger,  and,  therefore,  at  the  close  of  the 
Roman  domination  in  Britain."     The  identification  of  the  localities 
is  not  certain  in  all  the  cases  quoted.     "  We  must  not  imagine  that 
they  were  bodies  of  troops  in  temporary  quarters  which  could  be 
changed  at  pleasure,  for  inscriptions  .  .  .  show  us   that  they  had 
remained  in  the  same  place  from  a  very  early  period  of  the  Roman 
occupation  of   the  island." — The  Celt,  the  Roman  and  the  Saxon,  by 
Thomas  Wright  (London:  Virtue  &  Co.,  1852). 

H  97 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

strange  contrast  with  the  present.  Besides  the  Asturian 
and  Dalmatian  soldiers,  there  must  have  been  merchants 
and  money-lenders  and  camp-followers  of  all  kinds, 
speaking  many  tongues,  upon  these  wind-swept  moor- 
lands. In  the  museum  at  South  Shields  is  a  sepulchral 
monument  representing  a  woman  seated,  holding  in 
her  right  hand  a  jewel-box,  in  her  left  implements  of 
needlework.  Underneath  is  a  bilingual  inscription, 
telling  us  in  Latin  that  the  figure  represents  '  Regina, 
freedwoman,  and  wife  of  Barate  the  Palmyrene,  herself 
of  the  (British)  nation  of  the  Catuallauni,  who  died  at 
the  age  of  thirty.'  In  characters  akin  to  Hebrew,  the 
Oriental  part  of  the  inscription  says  simply,  '  Regina, 
the  freedwoman  of  Barate.  Alas !  '  The  blended 
nationality,  the  British  girl  bought,  enfranchised,  loved 
and  too  soon  lost  by  the  Syrian — merchant  perchance 
or  usurer — who  followed  the  flight  of  the  eagles  of 
Rome  "  —these  elements  of  human  interest  in  an  experi- 
ence which  cannot  have  been  an  isolated  incident  point 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  environment  of  the  British 
peoples  was  modified  by  the  foreign  elements  introduced 
by  the  Roman  conquest  and  occupation  of  these 
Islands.1 

But  the  story  is  still  far  from  finished.  Coming  to 
our  more  immediate  invaders,  the  so-called  Anglo- 
Saxons,  we  are  told  as  the  fruit  of  the  latest  research 
that  the  three  national  names  of  Angles,  Saxons  and 
Jutes  were  not  the  names  of  nations  even  in  the  fairly 
wide  modern  sense  of  the  term,  but  were  rather  con- 
venient designations  for  confederations  of  tribes,  the 
Angles  being  one  confederation,  the  Saxons  another, 
and  the  Jutes  a  third.  Among  these  invaders  were 
found,  not  only  Angles  (who  were  probably  Scandi- 
navians), Saxons  and  Jutes,  but  also  Danes,  Frisians, 
Rugians,  Hunsings,  Boructers,  Goths  and  Vandals. 
The  Frisians  were  Batavians,  like  the  Dutch  of  to-day. 
The  Vandals  were  not  even  Teutonic,  but  Slavonic,  as 
also  were  the  Rugians,  the  Wilte  (the  county  Wilts 
has  thus  a  Vandal,  a  Slavonic  name),  the  Finns,  the 

1  The  Political  History  of  England,  by  Thos.  Hodgkin,  D.C.L., 
Litt.p.  (Longmans,  1906),  Vol.  I.  pp.  57-8.  Dr.  Hodgkin  dates  the 
Notitia  (see  last  note)  "  probably  about  the  year  402  "  (p.  69). 

98 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Lechs  and  other  peoples  with  ugly  prognathous  skulls. 
Kent,  in  many  respects  the  very  heart  of  England,  and 
historically  pre-eminent  for  its  determined  and  typically 
"  Anglo-Saxon  "  passion  for  liberty,  owes  that  character- 
istic to  the  tradition  of  no  English  tribe,  but  to  the 
Goths;  and  the  tracks 'of  those  notorious  disturbers  of 
social  peace,  the  Vandals  and  the  Huns,  can  be  followed 
to  this  day  in  many  place-names  whose  modern  varia- 
tions do  not  disguise  their  original  meaning.1  For 
Philology  lends  its  support  to  these  conclusions  of  the 
ethnologist.  "  There  is,"  says  Professor  Marsh,  "  lin- 
guistic evidence  of  a  great  commingling  of  nations  in 
the  body  of  intruders."  2  They,  too,  with  their  already 
composite  mass  of  tradition,  inherited  from  many 
different  sources,  brought  with  them  a  character  and  a 
culture  to  mingle  with  the  character  and  the  culture 
already  established  here,  the  result  of  the  mingling 
traditions  of  many  invading  or  indigenous  tribes. 
Many  individual  members  of  the  Romanized  British 
community  perished,  or  left  the  country  for  the  neigh- 
bouring coast  of  France;  here, and  there  a  city  popula- 
tion was  massacred ; 3  but  as  a  whole  the  previous  in- 
habitants survived  in  immediate  intermingling  with  the 
invaders,  or  in  retirement  to  the  remoter  western  parts 
of  the  Island,  where  they  retained  their  peculiar  culture 
intact  until  the  progress  of  social  amenity  opened  the 
way  to  a  larger  "  Celtic  "  influence  upon  the  English 

1  "  It  is  worthy  of  note  here  that  John  Ball,  Wat  Tyler,  Jack  Cade, 
and  other  agitators  began  their  careers  in  Kent,  the  county  in  which 
the  first  Teutonic  settlements  were  made,  and,  therefore,  it  must  be 
presumed,  the  part  of  England  where  the  Anglo-Saxon  spirit  was 
most  fully  developed  in  early  times." — The  Anglo-Saxon :    a  Study 
in  Evolution,  by  George  E.  Boxall  (Grant  Richards,  1902). 

2  Lectures  on  the  English  Language,  by  George  P.  Marsh   (London : 
Sampson  Low  &  Co.,  1861),  p.  42. 

3  For  what  took  place  at  Exeter  and  London  see  London  before  the 
Conquest,  by  W.  R.  Lethaby  (Macmillan,  1902),  p.  24.     Cf.  Sir  Stanley 
Leathes  :    "It  was  easy  to  drive  such  a  peaceful  crowd  from  their 
holdings;    it  was  easy  also  to  let  them  stay  and  make  them  work 
that  they  might  supply  with  beef  and  bread  and  beer  proud  men  of 
war  who  thought  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  follow  the  plough." — 
"The  People  of  England,"  by  Sir  Stanley  Leathes,  K.C.B.,  M.A.,  The 
People  in  the  Making,  p.  35  (Ix>ndon  :   Wm.  Heinemann,  1915).     The 
safest  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  the  extermination  of  the  British,  like 
the  death  of  the  American  wit,  was  "  greatly  exaggerated." 

99 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

character.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  too,  was  but  a  runner 
in  the  Lucretian  torch  race  of  the  generations;  he 
passed  down  to  his  descendants,  and  to  the  descendants 
of  those  whom  he  joined  here  when  he  came,  the  heritage 
of  custom,  character,  culture,  tradition,  whiclt  he  had 
himself  received  from  many  predecessors  of  different 
tribal  origins.  We  all  know  what  has  happened  since 
he  came.  Danes  and  Normans,  Flemings  and  French- 
men, Italians  and  Spaniards,  foreigners  from  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  have  each  in  turn  contributed  some 
portion  of  their  separate  qualities  and  achievements  to 
enrich  the  environment  and  to  develop  the  character 
of  our  far-descended,  widely  recruited  people. 

It  has  not,  of  course,  been  possible  to  accompany  this 
list  of  the  various  inhabitants  and  invaders  of  Britain 
with  a  detailed  description  of  the  traditional  culture  they 
separately  brought  with  them  to  form  part  of  the 
common  stock.  The  absence  of  written  records  in  the 
case  of  the  pre-Roman  peoples  reduces  our  knowledge 
of  their  social  achievements  to  what  can  be  guessed 
from  an  examination  of  their  tools  and  their  graves, 
even  when  these  are  available.  To  elicit  from  such 
crude  and  primitive  materials  a  complete  theory  of  social 
development  would  be  a  task  worthy  of  the  Laputan 
projector  who  tried  to  extract  sunbeams  from  cucumbers. 
Such  a  theory  can  only  be  based  upon  the  careful  study 
of  historical  records  accumulated  through  many  genera- 
tions of  social  effort  and  achievement.  There  are,  no 
doubt,  possibilities  of  interesting  discoveries  even  if  we 
keep  off  the  main  tracks  of  historical  evolution.  Just 
as  we  can  believe  the  ethnologists  when  they  tell  us 
that  some  of  the  strange  facial  characters  found  among 
our  people  are  those  of  Neolithic  or  even  Palaeolithic 
tribes,  so  it  is  possible  that  some  of  the  fantastic  beliefs 
and  customs,  so  alien  to  our  civilization,  or  to  any 
civilization  at  all,  which  linger  in  out-of-the-way  places, 
or  even  at  times  affect  the  cultured  city-dweller,  may 
have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation 
in  an  unbroken  chain  whose  first  link  was  forged  by  the 
savage  tribes  from  whom  we  sprang.  The  unwritten 
superstitions,  the  haunting  fear  of  the  unknown  in 
Nature,  which  are  cherished  by  the  firesides  of  remote 

100 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

villages  on  wold  and  in  dale,  in  combe  or  glen,  may, 
perhaps,  be  the  heritage  of  a  folk-memory  stretching 
to  an  almost  illimitable  distance  in  the  past.1  But 
these  fancies  are,  perhaps,  but  playthings  for  the  curious 
student  of  the  quaint  and  the  bizarre.  Even  the  traces 
left  upon  our  native  character  by  the  direct  contact 
of  Roman  civilization  are  not  marked  with  sufficient 
clearness  to  be  followed  with  any  expectation  of  success 
in  our  immediate  purpose ;  2  and  Rome  at  a  later  date, 
as  a  metropolis  and  not  as  a  province,  was  to  pour  into 
our  national  life  the  full  flood  of  her  ripest,  if  resuscitated, 
splendours.  To  the  story  of  this  we  shall  come  in  due 
time  by  following  the  broad  track  of  our  historical 
evolution,  which  happily  commences  with  sufficient, 
though  not  perfect,  clearness  from  the  time  when  a 
Roman  historian  himself  directed  his  attention  to  those 
German  tribes  who  were  even  then,  as  we  shall  see, 
laying  the  foundations  of  English  nationality  and 
national  character;  a  character  and  a  nationality 
happily  destined  to  be  moulded  by  different  influences 
from  those  affecting  the  tribes  who  remained  in  their 
ancient  home,  to  become  in  our  own  time  the  enemies  of 
the  human  race. 

1  "  It  is  a  strange  but  recognized  fact  in  ethnology  that  the  members 
of  a  victorious  race,  even  when  moderately  civiMzed,  are  prone  to 
destroy  existing  art  and  culture,  whilst  unconsciously  imbibing  the 
superstitions  of  their  forerunners  on  the  soil." — Folk-Memory,  by 
Walter  Johnson,  F.G.S.  (Clarendon  Press,  1908),  p.  34. 

"  It  is  certain  that  many  of  our  common  habits  still  inherit  some- 
thing' from  the  Romans." — Sir  Stanley  Leathes,  The.  People  in  the 
Making,  p.  37. 


101 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Environment  of  the  English  Nation — Elements  which  have  com- 
bined to  its  Formation — The  Anglo-Saxon  Invaders — The  "  Ger- 
mans "  of  Tacitus — The  Reliability  of  his  Account ;  his  Subject- 
ivity less  evident  in  the  Germania  than  elsewhere  in  his  Writings — 
His- Description  of  the  German  Land  and  the  German  Peoples 
in  the  Second  Century :  Their  Characteristics  due  to  Environ- 
ment, not  to  Race :  transmitted  by  Tradition,  not  by  Heredity 
— In  them  we  find  a  Starting-point  of  the  English  National 
Character — Future  Developments  due  to  the  Commingling  of 
Environments. 

WE  do  not  think  it  can  reasonably  be  denied  that, 
however  important  the  elements  contributed  to  our 
national  character  by  pre-Saxon  occupants  of  Britain, 
the  most  pervasive  and  compelling  influence  in  our 
environment  is  that  furnished  by  the  conquering  bands 
of  raiders  and  settlers  who  formed  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  " 
Invasion.  As  a  starting-point  for  our  further  investiga- 
tions, therefore,  it  will  be  convenient  to  ascertain 
whether  any  general  character  can  be  assigned  to  the 
conglomeration  of  peoples  who  were  responsible  for 
that  event.  If  we  can  ascertain  what  was  the  character 
they  exhibited  before  their  settlement  of  England,  it 
will  not  be  difficult  to  show  how  it  was  modified  by 
the  various  environments  with  which  it  came  into 
contact  in  Britain.  However  varied  in  race  the 
invaders  may  have  been,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
bulk  of  them  must  have  been  of  Teutonic  stock.  They 
came  from  that  "  Germany  "  whose  inhabitants,  accord- 
ing to  Tacitus,  were  united  by  the  common  worship 
of  the  "  earth-born  god,  Tuisco,"  and  whose  general 
characteristics  were  described  by  the  Roman  historian 
not  long  before  they  began  to  make  raids  on  the  "  Saxon 
shore."  That  Celtic  and  even  Slavonic  tribes  were  in 
occupation  of  some  portions  of  the  "  Germania "  of 
Tacitus  does  not  destroy  the  general  validity  of  his 
description  of  them  as  Teutons,  and  it  is  here,  if  any- 

102 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

where,  we  must  look  for  our  earliest  reliable  account 
of  the  Teutonic  element  in  our  ancestry. 

We  need  not  enter  minutely  into  the  eternal  disputes 
affecting  the  general  credibility  of  Tacitus  as  an  historian, 
and  the  particular  purpose  with  which  he  wrote  his 
work.     It  will  be  enough  if  we  merely  refer  to  the  view 
which  would  discount  its  value  as  an  historical  record. 
"  Tacitus,"   says  Guizot,   "  has  painted  the  Germans, 
as  Montaigne  and  Rousseau  the  savages,  in  a  fit  of 
ill-humour  against  his  country."     But  to  admit  this  is 
not  to  admit  that  the  ill-humour  was  unjust  or  un- 
founded.    Tacitus,  like  every  other  historian  of  strong 
views  and  originality  of  character,  nay,  like  every  other 
human  being  who  has  a  story  to  tell,  colours  the  facts 
that  he  narrates.     But  the  colouring  does  not  falsify 
the  facts,  it  merely  falsifies  his  view  of  them  and  the 
deductions  he  draws  from  them.     Sir  William  Ashton, 
in   the   two   varying  reports   which   he   wrote   for   his 
Government  on  the  conduct  of  young  Ravenswood  in 
The  Bride  of  Lammermuir,  is  represented  as  describing 
the  actual  facts  in  both  accounts;    it  is  the  colouring 
he  gives  them  which  makes  one  report  a  eulogy  and 
the   other  a  condemnation.     But  the  impartial   critic 
can  dissociate  the  facts  from  the  subjective  tendencies 
of  the  reporter's  mind,  and  can  use  the  facts  for  more 
legitimate  purposes  than  to  advance  a  friend  or  ruin 
an  enemy  as  occasion  may  require.     Moreover,  if  Tacitus 
wrote  the  Germania  in  a  fit  of  dissatisfaction  with  Rome, 
it  is  just  possible  that  the  facts  fed  his  dissatisfaction 
rather  than  that  his  dissatisfaction  invented  the  facts. 
The  close  and  constant  study  to  which  Tacitus  has  been 
subjected  since  the  Renascence  has  informed  the  critics 
of  every  twist  and  turn   of  his   subjectivity,  showing 
exactly  what  sort  of  event  it  must  really  have  been 
for  Tacitus  to  have  coloured  it  so,  how  things  must 
have  actually  been  for  Tacitus  to  have  described  them 
with  that  bias.     And,  moreover,  it  is  easier  to  do  this 
with  the  Germania  than  with  any  other  of  the  writings 
of  Tacitus.     Here  he  is  less  rhetorical  than  elsewhere; 
less  the  victim  of  his  peculiar  vein  of  gloomy  satire; 
more  given  to  the  narration  of  precise  and  even  humble 
details,  which  would  not  have  been  important  enough 

103 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

to  describe  were  they  not  actually  existent.  It  is 
probable  that  Tacitus  was  for  four  years  governor  of 
Gallia  Belgica  (A.D.  89-93).1  Something  he  must  have 
known  from  personal  experience;  much  else  he  must 
have  learned  from  soldiers  and  merchants  \vho  showed 
the  Barbarians  the  valour  and  the  wealth  of  Rome. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  ulterior  objects,  or  the 
ultimate  object,  of  Tacitus  in  describing  the  manners 
of  the  German  tribes  to  his  fellow-countrymen,  it  is 
soon  evident  that  his  primary  purpose  is  to  present  a 
clear  and  striking  picture  of  peoples  and  institutions 
of  which  he  himself  has  a  clear  conception.  If  he  is 
finally  a  moralist  he  is  immediately  an  historian,  and 
incidentally,  of  course,  an  artist.  As  the  morality  which 
Tacitus  may  have  wished  to  teach  his  fellow-countrymen 
does  not  concern  us ;  as  the  artistic  workmanship  loses 
its  special  beauty  in  a  translation;  we  have  the  fuller 
freedom  to  search  for  the  historical  significance  of  the 
facts  he  has  recorded  for  our  information.  Even 
Gibbon's  account  of  Germany  and  its  inhabitants  is 
only  a  feeble  copy  of  that  of  the  Roman-  historian,  the 
weight  and  energy  of  whose  narrative  are  guarantees 
of  its  substantial  fidelity  to  the  actual  lineaments  of 
the  life  and  character  of  the  time.2 

At  the  outset  our  mental  vision  is  carried  rapidly 
over  a  vast  region  of  territory  bristling  with  forests  and 
reeking  with  swamps,  its  skies  inclement,  its  whole 
aspect  savage  and  gloomy,  so  repulsive  that  one  can 
never  imagine  a  stranger  making  it  his  home.  This 
terrible  land,  under  the  casual  industry  of  its  warlike 
inhabitants,  can  be  made  productive  of  grain,  but 
fruit-trees  do  not  flourish,  and  although  it  is  good 
grazing  country  the  cattle  are  usually  stunted.  Its 

1  See   Gas  ton    Boissier's   Tacite   (Paris :   Hachette   et  Cie.,   1903), 
pp.  36-8.     Boissier  contends  with  great  probability  that  Tacitus  was 
legatus  Augusti  pro  praetore  in  Gallia  Belgica,  although  he  evidently 
disregards  the  well-known  passage  from  Pliny  the  Elder  (N.  H.  Lib.  VII. 
Cap.  17),  which  the  older  commentators  (Voss,  Lipsius,  etc.)  always 
read  as  referring  to  our  Cornelius  Tacitus.     ("Cornelii  Taciti  equitis 
Romani  Belgicae  Galliae  rationes  procurantis.") 

2  Gibbon,  Vol.  I.  chap.  ix.     The  account  given  in  the  text  is  mainly 
based  upon  Church  and   Brodribb's  well-known  translation  of  the 
Germania  (Macmillan  &  Co.,  1868). 

104 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

innumerable  tribes  belong  to  one  race,  a  universally 
long-limbed,  red-haired,  blue-eyed  people,  whose  physical 
energies  are  equal  to  sudden  emergencies,  but  are  averse 
from  laborious  plodding.  Cold  and  hunger  they  can 
endure;  but  heat  and  thirst  are  beyond  their  limits. 
Their  dress  is  simple :  a  cloak  fastened  with  a  brooch 
or  with  a  thorn ;  and  even  this  light  garb  they  frequently 
discard  in  battle  for  greater  freedom  of  movement. 
Underclothing  is  a  sign  of  luxury  in  men,  although  it 
is  not  uncommon  in  women.  Their  diet,  too,  is  usually 
plain,  consisting  of  wild  fruits,  fresh  game  or  curdled 
milk,  but  in  war-time  they  expect  their  chiefs  to  provide 
them  numerous  feasts,  at  which  the  fare  is  coarse  but 
generous.  The  men  have  a  rooted  objection  to  work, 
leaving  all  domestic  and  field  duties  to  their  women, 
and  to  the  old  or  weak.  When  there  is  no  fighting 
afoot  they  can  make  shift  with  hunting,  'or  with  drink- 
ing beer  steadily  all  through  the  day  and  night.  They 
keep  sober,  however,  for  the  pursuit  of  gambling,  to 
them  a  passion  which  has  no  restrictions  and  no  limit. 
Their  only  public  entertainment  is  given  by  nude  young 
warriors  who  execute  dangerous  dances  amidst  bare 
swords  and  bristling  spears.  Peace  alone  they  cannot 
abide ;  but  as  much  as  they  hate  peace  they  love  sloth, 
and  when  peace  reigns  they  spend  most  of  their  time 
in  drinking,  their  indulgence  in  this  vice  being  fraught 
with  danger  to  the  national  freedom. 

But  their  master  passion  is  war.  They  prefer  the 
spear  to  the  plough  at  any  time.  It  is  as  splendid  and 
glorious  to  fight  as  it  is  dull  and  ignoble  to  work.  Courage 
in  the  fight  is  their  highest  virtue,  as  cowardice  is  the 
unpardonable  sin.  They  are  devoted  to  their  chief, 
especially  if  he  excels  in  bravery;  they  listen  to  him 
gladly,  especially  if  he  excels  in  eloquence ;  but  they  give 
him  the  greater  devotion  and  the  greater  obedience  if 
he  excels  in  generous  wealth,  because  they  take  pleasure 
in  gifts,  particularly  in  those  which  it  is  proper  for  a 
brave  leader  to  give  and  for  a  brave  follower  to  receive — 
horses  and  armour,  and  pendants  and  necklets  of  iron. 
Brave  and  warlike  as  they  are,  they  believe  in  the 
military  virtue  of  noise,  raising  a  tempestuous  chaunt 
as  they  rush  to  the  fray,  thus  exalting  their  own  spirits 

105 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

and  quelling  those  of  the  foe.  Their  offensive  arm  is 
the  iron-pointed  lance,  'good  for  either  stabbing  or 
throwing;  few  carry  the  heavier  spear,  few  wield  the 
sword;  the  foot-soldier  also  carries  javelins.  Their 
defensive  armour  is  of  no  account.  The  horseman  has 
a  shield;  some  few  attain  a  breastplate;  fewer  still  a 
helmet;  mostly  they  go  into  battle  naked  or  lightly 
clad.  Such  arms  as  they  have  are  objects  of  loving 
pride.  To  throw  the  shield  away  is  the  crowning 
infamy,  punished  by  social,  political  and  religious 
ostracism.  As  the  Roman  youth  becomes  a  man  by  the 
public  assumption  of  the  toga  virilis,  so  the  German  boy 
is  equipped  with  armour  in  the  presence  of  the  general 
assembly.  As  every  warrior  strives  to  excel  his  com- 
rades and  to  emulate  his  leader,  so  the  leader  must 
retain  his  superior  rank  by  superior  deeds  of  valour. 
If  he  falls  in  the  fray  they  must  not  come  back  alive. 
This  spirit  of  valorous  emulation  is  accentuated  by  the 
fact  that  every  man  fights  with  his  clan  of  kinsmen,  and 
in  the  near  presence  of  his  female  and  infant  dependents. 
The  women,  indeed,  are  greatly  honoured  by  all 
German  tribes  alike.  Prophetesses  are  revered;  in  one 
case  the  men  sink  below  the  level  of  slaves  by  serving 
a  queen  !  Like  the  men,  the  women  are  inured  to  hard- 
ship and  imbued  with  the  worship  of  bravery.  There 
is  little  to  distinguish  their  dress  from  that  of  the  men. 
Sometimes  they  wear  a  garment  of  flax  which  has  no 
sleeves  and  leaves  the  arms  and  breast  quite  bare. 
"  In  spite  of  which,"  says  Tacitus,  with  the  subtle  over- 
refinement  of  an  erotic  civilization,  "  the  marriage  bond 
is  strict."  Marriage,  indeed,  is  almost  a  military 
alliance.  The  "  dowry,"  which  is  the  gift  of  the  bride- 
groom, consists  of  no  trifling  trinkets  of  feminine  decora- 
tion, but  warlike  gifts  of  pride  and  substance — the  ox, 
the  bridled  horse,  and  armour,  to  show  the  wife  she 
comes  to  share  in  war.  There  is  no  secret  correspond- 
ence, no  clandestine  appointments,  no  adultery  (here 
Tacitus  seems  to  be  pointing  the  moral  against  Rome, 
speaking  with  exaggerated  emphasis  accordingly);  the 
feminine  victim  of  a  faux  pas  finds  by  neither  beauty 
wealth  nor  youth  the  consoling  refuge  of  a  husband's 
arms.  Mothers  suckle  their  own  babes  !  The  children 

106 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

of  the  wealthy  enjoy  no  luxury  more  than  the  children  of 
slaves.  Out  among  the  cattle,  at  home  on  the  earthen 
floor,  the  children  of  free  and  unfree  live  just  alike  until 
approaching  manhood  separates  them  and  the  freeborn 
youth  proves  his  breeding  by  his  valour.  Vigorous  youths 
unite  with  buxom  maids  at  an  age  when  their  vital  forces 
are  established,  and  thus  give  birth  to  a  robust  progeny. 

Although  they  are  capable  of  acting  in  unison  with 
the  clan  and  with  the  tribe,  the  social  unit  is  the  family, 
and  that  less  as  a  form  of  society  than  as  a  pendant 
of  the  individual  tribesman.  Cities  are  unknown ;  the 
settlement  or  village  is  established  in  isolation,  around 
some  spring  or  grove  or  plain.  Even  the  houses  are 
not  close  together.  Every  man  has  his  separate  abode 
with  a  clear  space  of  ground  about  it.  Stones  and 
tiles  are  unknown  in  building;  timber  is  the  universal 
material  of  construction.  They  show  no  care  for  beauty 
or  elegance.  All  is  for  use  and  nothing  for  display.  A 
winter  habitation  they  make  by  digging  cellars  roofed 
with  dung;  in  these  they  also  store  their  crops  for 
protection  against  frost  and  hostile  forays.  Their 
hospitality  is  unbounded,  including  friends  and  strangers 
alike.  It  is  a  sin — nefas — to  refuse  the  shelter  of  the 
house  to  any  mortal.  The  host  gives  of  his  best,  and 
all  of  it,  until  the  supply  fails;  then  host  and  guest 
go  elsewhere  to  meet  the  like  reception.  Parting  gifts 
are  demanded  without  embarrassment  and  given  with- 
out restraint.  Comity  is  the  unfailing  characteristic  of 
this  hospitable  relationship. 

It  was,  of  course,  not  to  be  expected  that  Tacitus 
should  give  us  a  full  picture  of  German  domestic  life 
in  these  timber-built  tenements.  Such  hints  as  we 
have  are  interesting.  The  head  of  the  family  and  his 
grown-up  sons  sleep  till  after  sunrise;  then  they  bathe 
in  warm  water;  then  to  breakfast,  each  at  his  own 
separate  seat  and  special  table.  Then,  taking  their 
arms  in  hand,  they  go  forth  to  what  business  is  press- 
ing, or  to  a  prolonged  bout  of  beer-drinking.  These 
carousals  have  the  usual  concomitants  of  quarrelling 
and  bloodshed;  but  they  also  serve  the  purpose  of 
discussing  subjects  of  personal  or  political  importance- 
marriage  contracts,  the  making-up  of  feuds,  the  choosing 

107 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

of  a  chief,  nay,  even  the  great  question  of  peace  or  war. 
Nevertheless,  cautions  the  Roman  critic,  their  intem- 
perance in  drinking  is  a  serious  danger  to  their  national 
existence.  "  Let  them  but  drink  all  they  want,"  says 
Tacitus,  "  and  they  will  perish  quicker  than  by  the 
swords  of  our  legionaries."  l  So  far,  however,  as  policy 
and  not  personality  is  concerned,  the  effects  of  their 
insobriety  are  modified  by  their  practice  of  deciding 
when  sober  what  they  have  discussed  when  drunk; 
"  a  double  process,"  says  Tacitus,  "  which  is  justified 
by  its  results'."  Drunkenness  opens  all  minds,  mouths 
and  hearts;  sobriety  secures  a  proper  selection  from 
the  plans  mooted  in  drink. 

We  may  take  it  from  the  foregoing  paragraph  that 
the  public  assemblies,  whether  tribal  or  intertribal, 
were  gatherings  of  sober  councillors.  Hither  come  the 
chiefs,  surrounded,  in  peace  as  well  as  in  war,  with  a 
large  body  of  picked  youths ;  here  attend  the  single 
warriors  who  have  not  yet  learned  the  virtue  of  punct- 
uality, as  they  come  dropping  in  one  after  the  other  for 
several  days  after  the  published  time  of  meeting.  When 
a  reasonable  number  havex  arrived  and  the  business  can 
start,  the  priests  proclaim  silence.  Then  the  Chief,  or 
King,  according  to  his  birth  or  age  or  eloquence  or 
military  distinction,  is  heard,  but  not  necessarily  with 
acquiescence  :  his  power  to  command  is  limited  by  his 
influence  to  persuade,  and  if  his  sentiments  are  unpleasing 
to  the  rank  and  file  they  reject  them  with  groans ;  if  they 
find  them  to  their  mind  they  brandish  their  spears. 

The  Assembly  exercises  judicial  as  well  as  deliberative 
functions.  Traitors  and  renegades  are  hanged  on  trees ; 
cowards  and  recreants  and  those  guilty  of  infamous 
crimes  are  pressed  under  a  hurdle  into  a  bog  and  there 
suffocated.  Minor  offences  are  punishable  according 
to  scale — fines  of  cattle  or  horses  are  exacted.  Part 
of  the  penalty  goes  to  the  King  or  the  Community,  and 
part  to  the  victim  of  the  offence. 

Not  only  does  the  Assembly  exercise  direct  judicial 
functions,  it  appoints  judges  to  decide  cases  in  the 
districts  and  villages.  Each  judge  has  a  hundred 

1  Qermania  23.  "Si  indulseris  ebrietati  suggerendo  quantum  con- 
cupiscunt,  baud  minus  facile  vitiia  quam  armis  vineentur," 

108 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

assessors,  who  advise  him  in  making  his  decisions  and 
assist  him  in  enforcing  them. 

Wills  are  unknown.  The  Law  of  Succession  is  to 
children,  and,  in  the  absence  of  children,  to  brothers, 
and  uncles  on  both  sides.  The  heirs  take  up  the  family 
feuds,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  these  can*be  settled  by 
the  distribution  of  live  stock  amongst  the  kin  of  the 
victim.  Interest,  simple  or  compound,  is  unknown. 

Tribe  follows  tribe  in  rotation  upon  the  land  of  various 
districts.  When  a  tribe  has  taken  over  its  district,  the 
land  is  distributed  among  its  individual  members.  Corn 
is  the  only  produce  they  care  about;  there  are  no 
orchards,  no  fenced  meadows,  no  irrigation.  They  do 
not  plough  land  two  years  in  succession — why  should 
they?  there  is  plenty  to  spare.  They  have  only  three 
seasons.  The  rich  glories  of 'fruit-bearing  autumn  are 
unknown  to  them  alike  in  name  and  in  reality. 

Their  funeral  ceremonies  are  simple;  there  is  no 
Oriental  opulence  of  robes,  spices  and  sepulchral  monu- 
ments. All  is  severe  and  chaste;  the  warrior's  armour 
is  burnt  on  his  pyre ;  perchance,  too,  his  horse ;  silence, 
sorrow  and  sadness  long  outlast  the  brief  weeping  and 
wailing  of  the  funeral  day.  Women  may  weep  the 
departed;  but  men  should  remember  him. 

Such,  in  essential  outline,  is  the  picture  which  Tacitus 
has  given  us  of  the  Germans,  their  habits  and  their 
institutions.  Can  any  one  doubt  that  it  is  fundamentally 
an  honest  record  of  what  was  believed  by  the  writer  to 
be  actual  fact,  coloured,  perhaps,  a  little  by  the  force 
of  the  contrast  between  the  barbarian  and  the  civilized 
standards  of  life  and  conduct;  coloured,  too,  doubtless 
a  little  by  the  ethico-political  and  satirical  purpose  of 
the  philosophical  historian,  but  in  its  substance  and  in 
most  of  its  details  clearly  a  faithful  record  of  things 
honestly  reported  and  intelligently  sifted?  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  object  of  Tacitus  in  writing  this 
book,  and  whatever  impression  he  produced  upon  the 
minds  of  his  Roman  contemporaries,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  emotional  effect  which  the  perusal  of 
its  minute  and  definite,  sometimes  trivial  'and  common- 
place, details  has  on  the  mind  of  a  modern  reader.  This 
effect  may,  perhaps,  be  best  described  by  negatives. 

109 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

It  is  not  exhilaration,  it  is  not  brilliance,  it  is  not  inspired 
by  any  feeling  of  prophetic  enthusiasm  which  can  some- 
times discern  the  advent  of  a  mighty  group  of  empires 
from  the  small  and  paltry  struggles  of  insignificant 
tribes.  It  is  rather  that  cool  and  sensible  emotion  which 
one  may  feel  after  a  conversation  with  a  serious  and 
strenuous  man  who  regards  facts  as  facts,  and  who, 
therefore,  narrates  nothing  startling,  lest  it  should  pro- 
voke the  attacks  of  a  dissolvent  criticism.  These  minds 
are  invaluable  to  the  historical  inquirer  who  comes 
after  them.  In  them  the  subjective  element  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum,  and  they  furnish  the  plain  fabric  for  more 
imaginative  minds  to  embroider  at  will.  "  Why  tell 
these  things,"  one  asks,  "if  they  were  not  so?  It  is 
not  worth  while  to  invent  such  plain  and  simple  annals." 
This  emotional  effect  produced  by  the  Germania  goes 
far  to  establish  an  intellectual  perception  of  its  veracity. 
If  the  facts  had  been  coloured  to  the  extent  that  the 
great  mind  of  Tacitus  can  colour  facts  when  he  likes, 
we  may  be  sure  that  the  plain  and  straightforward 
account  we  here  possess  of  the  manners  of  the  German 
tribes  of  the  first  century  would  have  been  replaced  by 
something  as  bizarre  and  portentous  as  the  character 
of  Tiberius,  something  as  dramatic  and  mysterious  as 
the  career  of  Sejanus.  Tacitus,  fortunately  for  us,  is 
here  the  apostle  of  "  useful  information  " ;  he  is,  for 
the  most  part,  as  cold  as  a  Blue  Book  and  as  conscientious 
as  a  writer  of  precis. 

Although,  therefore,  it  will  be  part  of  our  future  task 
to  ascertain  whether,  assuming  the  Roman's  account 
to  be  true,  the  subsequent  evolution  of  character  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  descendants  of  the  German  tribes  can  be 
explained  as  springing  naturally  from  this  origin,  and 
as  moulded  by  the  influence  of  an  environment  constant 
in  some  respects  and  constantly  varying  in  others,  we 
may,  perhaps,  venture  to  assert,  even  at  this  early  stage, 
that  the  world  into .  which  we  glimpse  through  the 
pages  of  Tacitus  shocks  us  less  by  what  is  strange  than 
it  attracts  us  by  what  is  familiar.  We  are  sympathetic- 
ally inclined  to  admit  that  here,  at  any  rate,  is  one 
source  of  our  national  life  and  of  the  traditions  that 
have  moulded  our  national  existence;  that  from  this 

110 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

.• 

kindly  source  we  derive  some  of  the  most  prominent 
and  effective  of  our  national  characteiistics.  Here  we 
find  our  regard  for  law,  our  care  in  its  administration, 
our  devotion  to  the  claims  of  hospitality,  our  respect 
and  love  for  our  women,  our  reverence  for  the  mysteries 
of  religion,  and  our  obedience  to  its  sacred  ministrants. 
Here,  too,  are  our  bravery  in  battle,  never  eclipsed 
through  our  long  record  as  fighters  in  causes  good,  bad 
and  indifferent;  here,  too,  is  our  clannish  exclusiveness, 
our  individual  independence,  and  our  deep  conviction 
that  an  Englishman's  house  is  his  castle;  here,  too,  are 
our  inebriety  and  our  passion  for  gambling.  From  other 
sources  we  have  learnt  to  be  patient  and  plodding  in 
industry,  to  endure  both  heat  and  thirst ;  have  acquired 
our  national  cohesion  and  systematized  ardour  in  all  the 
fields  of  action  and  of  thought,  of  speculation  and  experi- 
ence, of  imagination  and  reality.  Here,  at  any  rate,  is 
the  groundwork  of  much  of  what  we  have  attained  in 
the  long  roll  of  subsequent  ages;  here  is  much  which  we 
can  be  proud  of  as  kinsmen,  grateful  for  as  children. 

To  what  processes  of  discipline  springing  from  their 
physical,  mental  and  moral  environment  the  German 
tribes  owed  the  qualities  which  Tacitus  assigns  to  them, 
we  are,  unfortunately,  not  in  a  position  to  state,  except, 
perhaps,  in  the  most  vague  and  general  terms.  The 
present  writer  is  not  an  anthropologist,  nor  even  an 
ethnologist,  but,  although  suspicious  of  the  dogmatism 
which  bases  final  and  far-reaching  conclusions  upon 
insufficient  evidence,  he  has  followed  with  grateful 
interest  the  labours  of  the  brilliant  students,  in  Britain 
unfortunately  too  few,  who,  during  the  past  half -century, 
have  discovered  link  after  link  of  the  chain  which 
connects  Neolithic  bones  and  implements  with  historic 
man  in  Europe,  and  who  have  proved,  in  this  case 
almost  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  that,  as  one 
of  the  most  eminent  among  them  says,  "  there  is  no 
evidence  whatever  to  show  that  the  present  inhabitants 
of  Europe  are  not  descended  from  the  people  of  the 
Neolithic  age,"  and  that  "in  no  part  of  Europe  was 
there  any  interruption  of  continuity  between  the  ages 
of  stone  and  metal."  *•  These  scholars  have  demon- 
1  Taylor,  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  p.  129. 
Ill 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

strated  the  European  origin  of  the  Aryans  in  every- 
thing approaching  an  historical  sense  of  that  term,  and 
it  is  with  a  feeling  of  something  like  patriotic  pride 
that  one  now  recalls  the  sneer  of  Hehn  in  1874  at  the 
labours  of  Latham  :  "  Then  it  came  to  pass  that  in 
England,  the  land  of  eccentricities,  a  revolutionary  brain 
conceived  the  notion,  of  the  European  origin  of  the 
Indo-European  peoples."  J 

In  harmony,  therefore,  with  the  theory  now  generally 
accepted  by  ethnologists  and  historians,  we  admit  that 
the  Germans  of  Tacitus,  instead  of  having  come  from 
that  famous  Asiatic  motherland,  the  supposed  ancestral 
home  of  all  the  Aryan  peoples,  had  attained  the  civiliza- 
tion, which  he  assigns  to  them,  as  the  long  result  of 
processes  gradually  developing  their  powers  under  the 
inclement  skies  which  had  lowered  upon  them  from  at 
least  the  beginning  of  the  Neolithic  period,  some  10,000 
years  ago.  The  descriptions  of  the  Roman  historian 
make  it  equally  certain  to  which  of  the  three  or  four 
Neolithic  groups  they  belonged.  Their  blue  eyes, 
fair  hair,  huge  frames,  compel  their  assignation  to 
the  Neolithic  people  of  the  Row  Grave  and  Kitchen 
Midden  type,  now  most  directly  represented  by  the 
Swedes,  the  Frisians  and  the  fair-haired  Germans  of 
the  North.  Although  there  is  considerable  confusion 
among  classical  writers  in  the  use  of  the  words  German 
(or  Teuton)  and  Celtic;  although  it  is  equally  true 
that  the  superficial  resemblance  between  Celt  and 
German  may  corroborate  the  idea  that  some  at  least 
of  the  German  tribes  of  Tacitus  were  Celts;  yet  it 
is  certain  from  other  sources  that  the  Roman  writers, 
especially  that  clear-eyed  critic,  Caesar,  recognized  the 
physical  differences  between  them.  It  seems  certain 
that,  for  the  most  part,  the  Germans  of  Tacitus  were 
Germans  in  the  ethnological  sense,  belonging  to1  that 
Neolithic  stock  now  generally  known  as  Scandina- 
vian or  Nordic.  The  Celt  and  the  Iberian,  right 
down  from  the  Neolithic  ages,  have  been  engaged  in 
evolving  qualities  which  were  destined  to  play  their 

1  Taylor,  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  p.  23.  "  Da  gesehah  es  dass  in  England, 
dem  Lande  der  Sonderbarkeiten,  ein  originelJes  Kopf  es  sich  einfalleu 
liess  den  Ursitz  der  Indo-germanen  nach  Europa  zu  verlegen." 

112 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

part  in  the  history  of  Anglo-Saxonia,  when  the  three 
groups  should  meet  and  mingle  their  traditions  and  their 
civilization  on  British  soil.  But  in  Germany  the  time 
was  not  yet,  and  with  slight  and  partial  exceptions  we 
can  accept  the  statement  of  Tacitus  that  "  the  Germans 
were  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  country,  unalloyed 
by  the  admixture  of  immigrant  tribes,"  a  statement  long 
accepted  as  true,  then  refuted  as  absurd,  and  now  again 
admitted  as  substantially  and  probably  finally  true.1 

This    statement    of    Tacitus,    thus    corroborated    by 
modern  investigators,  is  interesting  chiefly  because  it 
points  to  the  operation  of  the  same  environment  through 
many  ages  upon  the  people  who  were  the  subject  of  his 
studies,  as  they  are  of  ours.     The  same  inclement  skies, 
the  same  gloomy  forests,  the  same  deadly  swamps,  all 
the  rigours  of  a  North  European  climate  untempered 
by    civilization :    these    had    formed   an    environment 
especially   provocative  of   those   very   qualities   which 
Tacitus  ascribes  to   them  in   his   account.     We  have 
already  quite  clearly  defined  our  attitude  in  the  face 
of  those  who  maintain  that  when  once  these  qualities 
were  developed  under  the  inspiration  of  this  environ- 
ment they  commenced,  at  some  unascertainable  period 
in  the  history  of  the  people,  to  be  handed  down  by 
hereditary  transmission  through  the  blood  and  brains 
of  all  subsequent  generations.     Hereditary  transmission 
there  may  be,  nay,  undoubtedly  is;  but  it  is  a  heritage 
that  is  transmitted  by  tradition  and  not  by  blood.     It 
is  impossible  not  to  agree  with  von  Ihering  and  his 
school  when  they  explain,  with  so  much  justice  and 
lucidity,  the  processes  by  which  national  characteristics 
are  formed  and  developed  under  the  compelling  inspira- 
tion of  soil  and  climate  and  the  other  environmental 
conditions   dependent  on   these.     The   difficulty  is  to 
follow  them  when  they  all  at  once  repudiate  their  own 
quite  adequate  explanation  of  the  phenomena  under 
consideration,  and  substitute  in  its  place  an  explanation 
which  is  not  only  unintelligible,  but  which  would  be 
unnecessary    even    if    it    could    be   understood.     That 
process  of  traditional  accumulation  which  is  sufficient 

1  Tacitus,  Oermania,  Sect.  ii.     "  Ipsos  Germanos  indigenas  crediderim, 
minimeque  aliarum  gentium^wlventu  et  hospitiis  mistos." 
I  113 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

* 

to  form  a  national  character  is  surely  sufficient  to  con- 
tinue the  same  process  in  the  evolution  of  a  national 
character  which  may  be  formed  but  is  not  finished.  The 
vivid  descriptions  of  these  writers  enable  us  to  follow 
with  a  dramatic  intensity  of  vision  the  long  roll  of 
events  and  influences  which,  occurring  and  increasing 
in  generation  after  generation,  finally  issue  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  fully-fledged  -national  character.  But  we 
cannot  follow  them  when  they  assert,  with  von  Ihering, 
that  a  national  character  once  formed  is  transmitted 
unalterable  through  the  operation  of  physical  and 
mental  heredity.  We  refuse  to  believe  that  the  same 
kind  of  forces  which  are  adequate  to  produce  are  not 
adequate  to  maintain  and  develop  what  they  have 
produced.  We  refuse  to  believe  fthat  the  character 
of  the  German  tribes  as  described  by  Tacitus  is 
henceforward  to  be  transmitted  through  the  blood  of 
all  their  descendants.  We  see  no  reason  for  denying 
that  the  process  by  which  that  character  was  formed 
and  transmitted  up  to  the  days  of  Tacitus,  the  process 
of •  accumulative  tradition,  also  acts  to  form  and  transmit 
that  character  down  from  the  days  of  Tacitus.  Those 
who  hold  that  national  character  is  originally  the  crea- 
tion of  environment  do  not  maintain  that  the  process 
is  instantaneous;  they  describe  it  as  the  long  result  of 
generations  of  accumulated  physical  toil  and  intellectual 
and  moral  effort,  as  gradually  inspired  and  evoked  by 
the  stimuli  of  external  forces.  One  generation  does  its 
work  and  hands  down  the  tale  of  its  labours  to  the 
next.  This  in  turn,  the  environment  still  impelling 
moulding  and  inspiring,  adds  its  store  to  the  inheritance 
it  has  received,  and  the  joint  product  of  the  tw.o  genera- 
tions is  handed  down  to  a  third,  and  so  on,  until,  as  these 
writers  assert,  the  final  and  decisive  national  character 
is  formed,  henceforward  to  be  transmitted  by  heredity 
unaffected  by  the  environment. 

Now  we  have  already  given  our  reasons  for  refusing 
to  accept  this  account  of  the  transmission  of  national 
character.  We  may  admit  that  when  once  a  national 
character  has  been  created  it  might  be  handed  down 
substantially  unaltered  from  one  generation  to  another 
if  there  were  no  change  of  environment.  But  such 
stability  is  almost  inconceivable.  Even  if  we  could 

114 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

isolate  a  community  in  vacuo,  we  could  not  finally 
stereotype  its  environment  by  so  doing.  Every  indi- 
vidual member  of  a  community  is  a  portion  of  the 
national  environment;  and  Nature  is  so  prolific  in 
individual  differences  that  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
possibilities  of  environmental  change  even  in  a  hypo- 
thetically  isolated  community.  But  that  case  is  only 
hypothetically  interesting.  In  the  instance  we  are  dealing 
with,  the  case  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  of  Tacitus,  we 
have  an  almost  continuous  record  of  changing  environ- 
ment from  the  days  of  Tacitus  to  our  own;  and  it  is 
in  the  results  of  that  changing  environment  that  we 
are  to  look  for  modifications  of  the  national  character 
recorded  in  the  pages  of  the  Roman  historian.  It  is 
because  we  believe  that  the  formation  of  national  char- 
acter is  a  continuous  process,  in  which  the  tradition  of 
one  generation  is  handed  down  to  the  next,  t*here  to 
undergo  modification  and  addition  due  to  differences 
of  the  prevailing  environment,  and  to  be  again  handed 
down  thus  modified  to  a  subsequent  generation,  and 
so  on,  ad  infinitum — it  is  because  we  believe  this  that 
we  have  been  anxious  to  start  from  a  well-established 
tradition  of  Teutonic  national  character  as  a  basis  for 
its  subsequent  developments.  If  our  theory  be  true, 
we  shall  find  that,  as  the  history  of  these  tribes  is  traced, 
they  will  be  found  to  exhibit  similarities  of  character 
in  periods  separated  from  each  other  by  centuries.  But 
we  shall  also  expect  to  find  differences.  The  similarities 
will  not  be  due  to  the  transmission  of  qualities  by 
heredity,  but  to  their  transmission  by  tradition  and 
training.  Each  new  generation  of  the  group,  together 
with  any  strangers  who  have  settled  in  their  midst 
(and  these,  perhaps,  as  often,  of  entirely  different  races), 
is  educated  in  the  tradition  of  its  predecessor,  and  quite 
naturally  and  inevitably  hands  it  down  to  younger 
successors.  If  chastity,  fidelity,  reverence  for  law  and 
religion,  a  passion  for  gambling,  a  tendency  to  inebriety, 
form  part  of  the  traditional  atmosphere,  they  are  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation  by  the  strong  force  ' 
of  juvenile  imitation,  aided  by  conscious  training  on  the 
part  of  the  elder  generation.  But  to  what  are  the 
differences  due?  How  explain  the  new  elements  in 
the  national  character?  Simply  by  the  new  factors 

115 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

operating  upon  the  people  under  a  changed  environment. 
In  the  case  of  the  tribes  of  Tacitus,  or,  at  any  rate,  in 
the  case  of  those  whom  we  shall  follow  to  the  English 
shore,  we  shall  find  differences  of  character  developing 
under  the  operation  of  the  factors  of  their  new  environ- 
ment ;  an  environment  which  has  been  affected  by  change 
of  geographical  position,  with  all  which  that  means  in  the 
way  of  streams  of  influence,  not  only  physical,  but  also 
social  and  political,  owing  to  contact  with  new  social  and 
political  groups.  These  in  turn  become  part  of  the 
character  of  the  people,  are  imbibed  in  early  youth,  and 
are  thus  handed,  down  from  generation  to  generation, 
not  by  heredity,  but  by  tradition,  education,  training. 

It  must,  of  course,  be  remembered  that  environment 
is  not  simply  the  forces  operating  directly  upon  a  people 
in  its  habitat.  It  is  the  whole  of  the  influences  operat- 
ing upon  it  from  whatever  source.  Every  foreign  invasion 
of  England,  whether  military,  commercial,  literary  or 
artistic,  every  enlargement  of  its  horizon  by  increased 
facilities  of  international  communication,  has  changed 
the  English  environment,  and  has  thus  added  to  the 
forces  operating  to  produce  character.  These  forces 
being,  in  the  aggregate,  different  from  those  which,  we 
have  seen,  operated  upon  the  German  tribes  of  Tacitus 
who  continued  living  in  Germany,  have  naturally  and 
inevitably  produced  a  different  result,  so  that  not  only 
are  the  modern  Englishman  and  German  different  from 
the  Frisian  or  Chattian  (i.  e.  Hessian)  of  Tacitus,  but 
they  are  different  from  each  other.  From  this  point 
of  view,  the  thing  requiring  explanation  would  be  to 
find  them  the  same.  Indeed,  if  one  may  say  so,  the 
main  difficulty  of  thoughtful  people  is  not  in  recognizing 
the  differences  of  national  characters,  but  in  finding  a 
reasonable  explanation  for  their  existence  and  a  legiti- 
mate ground  for  maintaining  them.  The  writer,  again, 
ventures  to  believe  that  the  principle  of  organic  com- 
munity of  interest,  handed  down,  expanded,  modified 
by  progressive  changes  of  environment,  furnishes  both 
a  reasonable  explanation  of  their  existerice  and  a 
legitimate  ground  for  maintaining  them.  Patriotism 
is  not  only  explicable  as  a  national  sentiment,  but 
justifiable  as  a  reasonable  faith. 

116 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Poem  of  Beowulf— -The  German  Tribes  between  the 
Second  and  Sixth  Centuries — Beowulf  a  Picture  of  some  of  the 
German  Tribes  about  the  end  of  that  Period — Origin  and'History 
of  the  Beowulf  Saga — An  Account  of  its  Story — Summary  of 
the  Characteristics  it  exhibits  in  its  People — Similarities  and 
Differences  between  them  and  their  Pvepresentatives  in  Tacitus 
— National  Character  and  a  national  Ideal — Beowulf  essentially 
English — The  Welding  of  English  Nationality. 

IT  would  be  satisfying  alike  to  patriotic  interest  and 
historical  curiosity  if  we  had  a  complete  record  of  the 
development  of  the  German  peoples  from  the  point 
where  Tacitus  leaves  them  to  the  time  of  their  appear- 
ance on  the  stage  of  modern  history  when,  as  Franks, 
Suabians,  Thuringians,  Bavarians,  Saxons,  Hessians, 
Goths,  Burgundians,  Jutes,  Angles  and  Frisians,  they 
began  to  play  a  part  in  the  spread  of  civilization  as 
they  had  hitherto  played  a  part  in  attempting  to  destroy 
it.  But  nothing  js  more  irritating  than  the  lacuna 
which  separates  the  "  Germania  "  of  Tacitus  from  the 
"  Deutschland  "  of  Clovis.  The  painstaking  historian 
of  modern  days  can  piece  together  little  but  "  mlnutite 
of  the  internal  changes  of  position  and  relation  of  the 
tribes  of  interior  Germany,"  minutiie  with  which  "  it 
would  be  impossible  to  load  the  memory."  x  In  Tacitus 
himself  we  have  already  hints  of  intertribal  animosities 
and  the  fresh  agglomerations  which  followed  the  trans- 
lation of  these  animosities  into  military  destructiveness. 
There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  for  centuries  before 
the  date  of  the  earliest  extant  specimens  of  German 
poetry — the  Merseberg  Incantations  and  the  Lay  of 
Hildebrand — there  was  a  constant  stream  of  those 
carmina  antiqua,  those  ancient  heroic  Sagas,  which 
Tacitus  tells  us  formed  their  only  method  of  recording 

1  Germany  in  the  Early  Middle  Ages,  476-1250,  by  Wm.  Stubbs,  D.D., 
edited  by  Arthur  Hassall,  M.A.  (Longmans,  1908),  p.  9. 

117 


historical  events  and  traditional  beliefs.1  But  nothing 
is  left  to  guide  the  imagination  in  wandering  about 
the  vast  field  which  was  once  filled  with  these  records 
of  religious  and  patriotic  enthusiasm.  It  is  particu- 
larly to  be  regretted  that  so  little  can  be  done  to 
connect  the  German  tribes  of  Tacitus  with  the  German 
peoples  at  the  beginnings  of  modern  history.  We  are 
able  with  some  measure  of  certitude  to  identify  the 
Alemanni  as  persons  of  modern  European  history  with 
the  Suevi  of  Tacitus,  the  Bavarians  with  his  Marco- 
manni,  the  Attoarii  or  Hetware  with  his  Chatti  (and 
the  Chattuarii  of  Strabo),  and  the  Hugas  of  Beowulf 
with  his  Chauci,  while  the  Angles  and  Saxons  are 
closely  connected  with  his  Frisii.  But  even  in  these 
cases  the  approach  to  perfect  identification  is  limited 
by  the  comminglings  of  various  tribes  who  disappear 
to  reappear  under  different  agglomerative  descriptions. 
Still,  however,  the  general  identification  which  we  are 
entitled  to  make  between  the  German  tribes  of  Tacitus 
and  the  people  of  Carlovingian  Deutschland  is  not 
without  its  historical  usefulness,  especially  for  students 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  character,  inasmuch  as  the  tribes 
who  commenced  to  raid  and  then  to  invade  Britain  in 
the  fourth  century  escaped  that  Romanizing  discipline 
which  has  made  the  modern  Germans  as  different  from 
the  Germans  of  Tacitus  as  the  former  are  different  from 
modern  Englishmen.  It  must  be  left  to  others  to  trace 
the  processes  by  which  the  ancient  German  has  become 
the  modern  German,  while  we  follow  the  German  tribes 
who  came  to  our  shores,  and  attempt  to  trace,  at  any 
rate  in  part,  the  course  of  that  evolutionary  process 
which  produced  the  modern  Briton. 

And  here,  right  at  the  outset,  we  have  the  help  of 
the  wonderful  Saga  of  Beowulf,  the  earliest  poem  in 
English,  which  deals  with  historical  events  separated 
by  only  four  centuries  from  the  age  of  Tacitus,  and 
which  was  copied  into  the  only  extant  manuscript  by 
two  scribes  in  A.D.  1000.  The  facts  connected  with 
the  manuscript  are  thus  briefly  summarized  by  Mr. 

1  "  Carminibus  antiquis,  quod  unum  apud  illos  memoriae  et  annalium 
genus  est,"  Germania,  Sect.  ii.  See  also  A  History  of  German  Literature, 
by  Calvin  Thomas,  LL.D.  (London :  Win.  Heinemann,  1909),  p.  6. 

118 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Wentworth  Huyshe  in  the  "  Introduction "  to  his 
valuable  prose  translation  of  the  Saga,  first  issued  in 
1905  :  "  It  is  the  work  of  two  copyists  copying  from 
an  older  manuscript  in  some  tenth-century  monastery 
of  England;  bought  by  Sir  Robert  Cotton  in  the 
seventeenth  century  (before  1631)  at  a  time  when  the 
contents  of  monastic  libraries  which  had  not  already 
been  destroyed  were  scattered  about  over  the  land; 
brought  to  light  by  Wanley  in  his  Catalogue  in  1705; 
injured  by  fire  in  1731 ;  copied  by  Thorkelin,  the 
Icelandic  scholar,  in  1786 ;  first  printed  by  Thorkelin  in 
1815,  one  hundred  and  ten  years  after  its  existence  had 
been  made  known  by  Wanley.  Incredible  as  it  may 
seem,  during  the  wl^ole  of  those  years  there  was  no 
scholar  found  in  all  England  who  apparently  ever  took 
the  trouble  to  read,  much  less  edit,  the  poem."  1 

Fortunately  it  is  not  our  duty  to  enter  into  the 
controversies  which  have  raged  around  the  question  of 
the  composition  of  this,  the  earliest  English  epic,  in  a 
manner  curiously  suggestive  of  the  controversies  raging 
round  the  question  of  the  composition  of  the  earliest 
Greek  epics,  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey.  Before  examining 
the  poem  with  the  same  object  as  we  have  examined 
the  Germania  of  Tacitus,  it  is  essential  only  that  we 
should  be  able  to  ascertain  the  probable  approximate 
date  of  its  authorship,  and  of  the  period  which  it 
describes..  After  a  careful  examination  of  all  the 
evidence  and  the  arguments  based  upon  it,  we  can 
gratefully  accept  the  conclusions  of  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke 
and  Dr.  Clark  Hall  as  sufficient  for  our  own  purpose. 
Mr.  Brooke  writes  :  "  The  main  point,  however,  seems 
clear.  Beowulf  was  built  up  out  of  many  legends, 
which  in  time  coalesced  into  something  of  a  whole,  or 
were,  as  I  think,  composed  together  into  a  poem  by 
one  poet.  The  legends  were  sung  in  the  old  England 
(Anglen,  now  Schleswig-Holstein,)  across  the  seas,  and 

1  Beowulf:  An  Old  English  Epic  (the  Earliest  Epic  of  the  Germanic 
Race),  translated  into  modern  English  prose  by  Wentworth  Huyshe 
(Routledge,  1908),  Intro.,  p.  xx.  The  writer  has  used  Mr.  Huyshe's 
translation  for  his  text.  Where  the  original  is  referred  to  the  edition 
used  is  that  of  Messrs.  Harrison  and  Sharp  (Boston :  Ginn  &  Co., 
1904). 

119 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

brought  to  our  England  by  the  Angles,  or  by  that 
band  of  Jutes  or  Saxons  whom  many  suppose  to  have 
settled  at  an  early  time  in  northern  Northumbria. 
They  were  then  sung  in  Northumbria,  added  to  by 
Northumbrian  singers,  and  afterwards,  when  Christianity 
was  still  young  (stilk young,  that  is,  in  England),  com- 
pressed and  made  into  a  poem  by  a  Christian  singer,"  * 
who,  it  may  be  added,  was  probably  a  convert,  and 
who  was  sufficiently  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  his 
time  and  nation  to  make  no  careful  separation  between 
what  he  had  recently  believed  as  a  Pagan  and  what  he 
now  believed  as  a  Christian.  And  Dr.  Clark  Hall  con- 
cludes :  "  So  I  picture  to  myself  a  Mercian  courtier, 
perhaps  a  Scop  (minstrel),  whose  early  life  may  have 
been  spent  under  the  heathen  Penda,  who  changed  his 
religion  with  the  court  without  being  able  to  get,  or 
perhaps  even  wishing  to  get,  definite  instruction  in  the 
new  faith,  and  who  perhaps  came  in  some  degree  under 
Northumbrian  literary  influences,  writing  the  earlier 
part  of  the  poem  pretty  much  as  we  now  have  it  about 
A.D.  660,  and  the  latter  some  twenty  years  or  so  after 
that."  2  Before  proceeding  to  our  analysis  of  the  poem, 
as  following  upon  an  analysis  of  the  Germania,  we  may 
encourage  ourselves  by  adding  a  sentence  from  Mr. 
James  A.  Harrison,  Professor  of  English  at  the  Washing- 
ton and  Lee  University,  himself  an  editor  and  critic  of 
Beowulf:  "The  epic  of  Beowulf  is  a  sort  of  poetic 
Germania,  an  unconscious  poetic  treatise  on  the  customs 
and  habits  of  the  Early  Germans,  at  once  confirmatory 
of,  and  supplementary  to,  Tacitus  " ;  3  but  we  must 
bear  in  vivid  remembrance  that,  in  this  case,  the 
"treatise"  is  written  in  English,  and  that  its  author  is 
an  Englishman.  With  its  value  as  a  poem  rather  than 
as  a  "  treatise  "  we  have  little  claim  to  deal  at  present, 
seeing  that  its  immediate  usefulness  must  be  limited 
to  the  degree  in  which  it  casts  light  upon  the  character 
and  qualities  of  the  Early  English  people.  The  argument 
of  the  poem  is  as  follows. 

The  hero  is  a  Goth,  and  Goths,  Danes  and  Swedes 

1  Stopford  Brooke,  History  of  Early  English  Literature,  quoted  by 
Mr.  Huyshe. 

2  Huyshe,  Intro.,  p.  xxxiii.  8  Ibid.,  Intro.,  p.  xlvi. 

120 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

are  the  chief  persona  of  the  poem — Teutonic  peoples 
all,  near  kinsmen  of  the  Englishman  who  recounts  their 
deeds,  and  who  sympathetically  delineates  their  manners 
and  customs  because  they  are  his  own,  or  were  those 
of  -the  Pagan  folk  from  whom  he  has  sprung.  The 
poem  opens  with  an  artlessly  vivid  account  of  the  glory 
of  the  Danes,  or  Scyldings,  under  various  kings  until 
King  Hrothgar  came,  and  won  "  success  in  war,  honour 
in  battle  and  the  glad  obedience  of  his  kinsmen-friends." 
All  went  well  with  him  until  it  entered  his  mind  to 
build  a  Drinking  Hall  "  greater  than  children  of  men 
had  ever  heard  of."  "  Lofty  and  horn-gabled  "  it  rose, 
and  in  it  the  King  dealt  out  rings  and  other  treasures 
at  'the  banquet.  Daily  it  resounded  with  harp  and 
song  and  merriment,  and  at  night,  after  the  beer- 
drinking,  the  athelings  slept  in  happiness  and  peace. 
All  this  was  hateful  to  Grendel,  a  Demon  of  the  Fenland, 
a  Fiend  of  Hell,  who,  fierce  and  furious,  seized  thirty 
thanes  and  slew  them  in  the  Hall,  this  beautiful  Hall 
called  the  "  Hart."  Next  night  he  came  again  to  work 
fresh  bale,  until  at  last  "  he  was  safest  who  kept  furthest 
from  the  Hall  of  the  Hart." — "  Thus  Grendel  ruled  and 
wrought  against  right,  one  against  all,  until  the  best 
of  houses  stood  idle."  For  twelve  winter-tides  the 
terrible  lone-ganger  worked  this  woe  on  Hrothgar  and 
his  warriors,  until  sad  songs  made  known  the  hateful 
war  to  children  of  men  in  other  lands.  Thus  King 
Hygelac's  Goths  heard  of  the  misdeeds  of  Grendel; 
among  them  the  noble  and  powerful  thane,  Beowulf,  who 
"  bade  make  ready  for  him  a  wood  wave-crossing  ship," 
then  sped  over  the  "  Swan's  road  "  with  some  fifteen 
chosen  comrades,  the  keenest  he  could  find  of  them, 
and  arrived  at  the  land  of  the  Danes,  the  country  of 
Hrothgar  (which  lay  over  the  waters  to  the  South). 

Leaving  their  broad-bosomed   ship  fast   at   anchor, 
they  march  to  the  Hall  of  the  Hart. 

"  Stone-paved  was  the  street  which  led  their  steps. 
Then  shone  the  shirts  of  war.     The  shimmering  rings, 
Close-linked  by  hand,  hummed  in  flhe  battle-gear, 
When  first  they  hall-wards  fared,  arrayed  for  war; 
Set  they  then  down,  sea-weary,  the  wide  shields, 
The  hard-wrought  bucklers,  by  the  palace  wall; 

121 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Then  sank  they  to  the  seats,  the  corselets  sang 
With  sounding  metal,  and  the  spears  were  piled, 
Ash-wood,  with  steel  grey-pointed  :  such  the  arms 
Of  the  sea- wanderers."  1 

They  are  warmly  welcomed  by  Hrothgar,  who  knew 
Beowulf  "  when  he  was  yet  a  lad."  Beowulf  alludes 
(none  too  modestly)  to  his  many  exploits,  and  promises 
"  to  grapple  the  fiend  with  grip  of  hand  and  strive  for 
life,  foe  against  foe,  without  sword  or  broad  yellow 
round  shield  in  the  fight."  Hrothgar  dwells  sadly  on 
his  woe.  "  Full  oft  over  the  ale-cup  did  the  warriors 
boast,  flushed  with  beer,  that  with  their  terrible  swords 
they  would  abide  Grendel's  onset  in  the  Beer  Hall. 
Then,  at  morning  tide,  this  Mead,  Hall,  this  lordly 
palace,  was  stained  with  gore,  all  the  bench-boards 
covered  with  blood  when  the  daylight  shone."  After 
Hrothgar's  welcome,  on  they  go  to  the  Beer  Hall,  to 
drink  the  bright  liquor  together,  Danes  and  Goths  alike, 
while  a  thane  bore  round  the  art-adorned  ale-cup,  and 
from  time  to  time  a  minstrel  sang  clear  in  Hart  Hall. 
There  Unferth,  a  thane  of  Hrothgar,  jealous  of  Beowulf, 
chides  him  as  an  idle  boaster,  and  foretells  an  evil  fate 
for  him  if  he  dare  "  await  Grendel  at  close  quarters 
for  the  space  of  one  night."  Beowulf  responds  with 
something  more  than  spirit  to  his  "  friend  Unferth, 
drunk  with  beer."  He  boasts  still  more  loudly  of  his 
own  brave  deeds,  taunts  Unferth  with  his  cowardice 
in  the  matter  of  Grendel,  in  which  charge  he  includes 
the  Danes  in  general :  "  But  now,  ere  long,  I  shall 
show  him  in  battle  the  courage  and  strength  of  the 
Goths;  afterwards,  let  him,  who  may,  go  lighthearted 
to  the  meadrdrinking  when  the  morning  light  of  another 
day,  the  ether-clad  sun,  shall  shine  from  the  South  over 
the  children  of  men." 

This  "  steadfast  resolve  "  of  Beowulf  causes  gladness 
in  the  heart  and  hall  of  Hrothgar,  whose  Queen, 
Waltheow,  the  "  free-born  wife,"  "  the  gold-adorned, 
ring-adorned  Queen,"  "noble  of  mind,"  "mindful  of 
courtesies,"  carries  round  the  "costly  cup"  and  bids  "be 

1  Beowulf,  11.  320-9,  translated  by  Messrs.  G.  E.  and  W.  H.  Hadow 
in  their  Oxford  Treasury  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  I.  p.  9  (Clarendon 
Press,  1906). 

122 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

blithe  at  the  beer-drinking."  After  more  brave  words 
from  the  "  slaughter-fierce  warrior,  Beowulf,"  the  Danes 
retire  to  rest,  and  leave  him  and  his  comrades  to  their 
watch,  while.  "  shapes  of  the  protecting  shadow  came 
stalking,  wan  beneath  the  sky,  night  darkening  over 
all."  Doffing  his  iron  coat  of  mail,  his  helmet,  and  his 
sword,  he  determines  to  take  no  advantage  of  arms 
against  one  who  knows  not  the  noble  arts  of  attack 
and  defence;  he  will  have  "war  without  weapons" 
against  the  Fiend;  and  so  he  lays  his  head  on  the 
"  cheek-bolster,"  with  his  warrior  thanes  around  him. 

"  Then  from  the  moor,  under  the  misty  slopes,  comes 
Grendel  stalking,"  bursts  open  the  door,  and,  before 
the  very  eyes  of  Beowulf,  seizes  a  sleeping  warrior, 
"  bit  his  flesh,  drank  the  blood  in  streams,  swallowed 
with  unceasing  bites,  and  soon  had  devoured  all  of  the 
dead  man,  to  his  feet  and  hands.'* 

And  then  to  Beowulf  and  a  bloody  struggle,  in  which 
the  Hart  Hall  shook  and  would  have  fallen  had  it  not 
been  "  all  fast  within  and  without  with  iron  bands, 
smithied  with  cunning  thought."  As  it  was,  "  many  a 
mead-bench  adorned  with  gold  fell  from  the  sill,"  until 
at  last  Grendel's  arm  is  torn  off  by  the  Hero,  and  God's 
enemy  lay,  "  screaming  a  horrible  shriek,  a  triumphless 
song — the  slave  of  Hell  lamenting  his  wound."  "  That 
was  clear  token  of  the  victory,  when  the  battle-brave 
Hero  laid  down  the  hand,  arm  and  shoulder,  Grendel's 
clutching  limb  there  altogether,  under  the  wide  roof." 
And  so  to  his  Fen-refuge,  to  the  Mere  of  the  Water 
Demons,  where  Hell  seized  his  heathen  soul. 

Beowulf's  glory  is  now  proclaimed  far  and  wide, 
although  (it  is  curiously  added)  the  Danes  "  did  not 
at  all  blame  their  friend  and  lord,  the  gracious  Hrothgar, 
for  that  was  a  good  king."  "  At  times  a  thane  of  the 
King,  a  vaunt-laden  man,  one  who  remembered  a  very 
great  number  of  tales  of  old  time  1  (the  carmina  antiqua 
we  have  heard  of),  made  a  new  story  interwoven  with 
truth."  He  sings  of  Sigemund  the  Dragon-slayer,  the 
Killer  of  Giants;  of  Heremod,  "whose  strength  and 
valour  waned,"  and  how  Beowulf  is  "  more  than  these." 

1  Beowulf,  11.  868-70,  "  A  very  great  number  of  tales  of  old  time," 
i.  e.  "  eal-fela  eald-gesegena  worn." 

123 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  "  Thanksgiving  "  of  Hrothgar, 
who,  "  stepping  forth  from  the  bride-bower  with  a  great 
company,  and  his  Queen  with  him,  measuring  the  path 
to  the  Mead  Hall  with  her  maiden  band,"  praises  the 
eternal  Creator  first,  and,  after  Him,  Beowulf,  at  whose 
great  deed  even  Unferth  was  silent.  Then,  of  course, 
comes  the  true  English  function  of  the  Banquet  (which 
takes  place  in  the  restored  Hall),  the  giving  of  gifts  to 
Beowulf,  the  golden  ensign,  the  helmet  and  coat  of 
mail,  the  mighty  treasure-sword.  "  Never  have  I  heard 
of  many  men  who  in  more  friendly  wise  bestowed  upon 
each  other  at  the  ale-bench  the  four  precious  things 
adorned  with  gold " ;  these,  and  eight  horses  with 
cheek-plates,  one  with  a  cunningly-wrought,  art-adorned 
saddle,  the  war-seat  of  Hrothgar  himself — these  for 
Beowulf;  for  each  of  his  comrades  "  a  precious  object, 
an  heirloom."  And  so  ends  the  lay  of  Grendel  with 
the  gnomic  comment,  "  Much  of  loved  and  loathed 
must  he  endure  who  long  here  in  these  days  of  strife 
makes  use  of  the  world." 

But  still  the  rejoicings  are  not  ended.  The  mead- 
benches  resound  with  the  lay  of  King  Finn,  a  song  of 
the  Rape  of  a  Danish  Helen,  with  the  deeds  of  treachery 
and  revenge  that  are  the  burden  of  all  such  tales  from 
Homer  downwards.  Waltheow  again  takes  round  the 
cup,  speaks  graciously  to  Beowulf,  to  whom  she  also 
gives  rich  gifts — "  two  armlets,  a  mantle,  and  rings, 
with  a  collar,  the  goodliest  that  ever  I  heard  of  on 
earth."  There  is  more  drinking  and  revelry,  until  sleep 
falls  upon  the  warriors  in  their  ale-cups.  "  It  was  a 
good  people  !  " 

Again  "  there  was  a  cry  in  Hart."  The  Demon- 
Mother  of  Grendel,  greedy  and  gloomy,  will  avenge 
her  son's  death.  Coming  to  the  Hall  she  repeats  his 
exploits.  Clutching  at  ^Eschere,  one  of  the  sleeping 
Danes,  she  rushes  back  to  the  Fen  unscathed.  Beowulf 
is  fetched  in  haste,  and  told  of  the  death  of  JEschere. 
He  tracks  the  monster  to  her  mere,  over  narrow 
ways  and  lonely  paths,  steep  cliffs,  many  homes  of 
sea-monsters,  an  unknown  road,  until  suddenly  he 
finds  the  mountain  trees  overhanging  the  grey 

124 


rock  and  the  dismal  wood.  The  warriors  all  sit 
down.  "  Then  along  the  water  they  beheld  many  of 
the  serpent  kind,  strange  sea-dragons,  swimming  the 
deep,  sea-monsters  also,  lying  out  upon  the  cliff- 
slopes,  serpents  and  savage  beasts."  Beowulf,  this 
time,  girds  on  all  his  armour,  with  his  sword  "  Hrunting," ' 
the  gift  of  the  now-friendly  Unferth,  and  after  com- 
mending his  friends  to  Hrothgar,  bidding  him  send  his 
treasures  to  his  own  King  in  Gothland,  except  the 
famous  sword,  which  he  bequeaths  to  Unferth,  he 
plunged  into  the  whelming  water  of  the  Demon's  mere, 
and  it  was  a  day's  space  ere  he  could  see  the  bottom. 
Many  monsters  harassed  him  in  the  water;  many  a 
sea-beast  broke  the  war-shirt  with  hostile  tusks;  the 
sea-wolf  herself  gripped  him  and  carried  him  off  until 
he  found  that  he  was  "  in  some  kind  of  enemy  hall." 
"  He  saw  fire-light,  a  brilliant  flame  shining  brightly  " ; 
also  he  saw  the  Dempn  herself,  "  and  the  treasure  blade 
sang  out  a  greedy  war-song  on  her  head."  But  "  the 
battle-flasher  would  not  bite  " — the  first  time  its  power 
had  failed.  And  so  to  the  old  story  of  hand-grips  once 
more  !  He  falls  in  the  struggle ;  she  draws  her  knife, 
and  he  had  perished  but  for  the  braided  breast -net — but 
for  this  and  Holy  God,  who  "brought  him  to  his  feet 
again.  Then  saw  he  an  old  Jutish  sword,  good  and 
splendid,  the  work  of  the  Giants,  here  among  the  war- 
gear  of  the  enemy.  This  he  seized,  and  then  !  the  blade 
went  all  through  her  doomed  body.  Bloody  was  the 
sword;  the  hero  rejoiced  in  his  work.  This  vengeance 
wreaked  on  GrendePs  dam,  he  spies  Grendel's  lifeless 
body,  and,  in  anger  and  revenge,  hews  off  that  Demon's 
head,  and  then  plunges  upward  through  the  waters. 
Meantime,  all  his  companions  have  left  the  mere  in 
despair,  except  his  own  countrymen.  They  sit,  sick  at 
heart,  and  stare  at  the  water.  "  But  soon  was  he 
swimming ;  he  dived  up  through  the  water,  bearing  the 
Demon's  head  with  him."  Then  went  they  to  meet 
him ;  thanked  God ;  and  rejoiced  to  see  their  chieftain 
again  unhurt.  And  so  back  to  the  Hall,  and  with 
them,  high-souled  among' the  company,  their  liege-lord 
trod  the  mead-plains.  Hrothgar  welcomes  him  in  a 
speech  which  is  wonderful  in  this  connexion,  a  speech 

125 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

which  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  an  ancient  Greek's 
view  of  Nemesis  touched  with  Christian  colouring.  A 
man  attains  success ;  "he  knows  no  worse  state  until 
some  measure  of  pride  waxes  and  grows  within  him, 
when  the  guardian,  the  shepherd  of  the  soul,  sleeps. 
Too  sound  is  that  sleep,  bound  up  with  sorrows ;  very 
near  is  the  slayer,  who  from  arrow-bow  shoots  spite- 
fully." Then  conies  an  awful  change :  Wyrd,  Fate, 
Doom,  is  upon  him.  The  frail  body  wastes  away, 
and  one  succeeds  who  dispenses  treasure  without 
grieving.  "  Guard  thee  against  this  baleful  envy, 
beloved  Beowulf,  thou  best  of  men,  and  choose  thee 
that  better  thing,  .  eternal  gain." — "  Incline  not  to 
pride,  great  warrior.  Now  for  a  while  is  the  fulness  of 
thy  might;  soon  after,  it  shall  be  that  sickness  or 
sword  shall  deprive  thee  of  power,  or  the  clutch  of  fire, 
or  welling  of  flood,  or  grip  of  blade,  or  flight  of  spear, 
or  dire  old  age ;  the  brightness  of  e^es  passes  away  and 
grows  dark;  straightway  it  shall  be  that  death  o'er- 
masters  thee,  thou  lord  of  men."- — "  Go  now  to  thy 
seat;  share  in  the  feast -joy,  thou  honoured  in  war. 
There  shall  be  many  treasures  in  common  for  us  when 
morning  comes."  And  so,  while  "  the  helm  of  night 
loomed  dark  over  the  clansmen,"  to.  feasting  once  again 
they  go,  until  at  last  "the  great-hearted  one  rested; 
spacious  and  gold-adorned  the  Hall  towered  aloft ;  the 
guest  slept  within,  until  the  black  raven,  blithe-hearted, 
announced  the  joy  of  heaven,"  the  Dawn. 

If  the  Lay  of  Beowulf  can  be  divided  into  parts,  we 
have  now  come  to  Part  III.,  to  wit,  Beowulf's  return  to 
Gothland.  To  Unferth  first  he  gives  back  the  sword 
"  Hrunting,"  with  thanks  to  him  for  the  lending.  Then, 
with  more  thanks  to  Hrothgar,  and  promises  of  even 
greater  help  if  need  shall  be,  he  extends  an  invitation 
to  Hrethric,  Hrothgar' s  son,  to  come  to  Gothland, 
where  he  shall  find  many  friends,  since  "  far  countries 
are  the  better  sought  out  by  him  who  is  himself  of 
good  worth."  Hrothgar  replies  by  declaring  peace 
between  the  peoples  of  the  Goths  and  the  Spear-Danes : 
"  Treasures  in  common  shall  there  be  while  I  rule  the 
wide  realm ;  many  a  man  shall  greet  another  with  good 

126 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

things  across  the  gannet's-bath ;  over  the  sea  shall  the 
ringed  ship  bring  presents  and  love-tokens."  With  more 
gifts,  with  tears,  with  kisses,  he  bade  farewell  to  the 
beloved  Hero,  while  the  sea-goer,  which  rode  at  anchor, 
awaited  her  lord  and  master.  The  sea-timber  thun- 
dered, the  wave-floater  put  forth  foamy-necked  over 
the  sea  streams  with  wreathed  prow,  until  they  could 
make  out  the  cliffs  of  the  Goths,  the  well-known  head- 
lands. Welcomed  by  King  Hygelac  and  Queen  Hygd, 
to  them,  in  response  to  their  asking,  he  re-tells  the  tale 
of  his  exploits,  with  additional  details  and  no  unnecessary 
modesty  in  the  telling.  To  King  and  Queen  alike  he 
gives  a  royal  share  of  the  royal  gifts.  As  for  Hygd, 
"  ever  after  that  treasure-giving  was  her  breast  worthily 
adorned."  And  now  there  are  more  gifts  for  Beowulf, 
"  a  famous  heirloom  of  a  sword,  and  seven  thousand 
pieces  of  gold,  a  house  and  ruler's  seat."  And  here  we 
learn  that  Beowulf  had  not  always  been  so  famous  for 
courage.  "  Long  was  he  condemned  while  the  sons  of 
the  Goths  had  not  accounted  him  of  worth,  nor  would 
the  lord  of  the  war-hosts  do  him  much  honour  on  the 
mead-bench ;  they  strongly  suspected  that  he  was  slack, 
an  unpromising  atheling."  But  now  "  a  reversal  of 
every  slight  came  to  the  glory-blessed  man  !  " 

At  last,  when  Hygelac  and  Heardred  had  fallen  in 
battle  with  the  Swedes,  "  it  was  then  that  the  wide 
realm  came  into  the  hand  of  Beowulf."  For  fifty 
winters  he  ruled,  until  the  Dragon  came,  "  a  certain  One 
who  began  to  hold  sway  on  dark  nights,  keeping  watch 
over  a  hoard  in  a  high  burial  mound,  a  steep  stone  hill. 
Beneath  it  was  a  path  unknown  to  man." — "  There,  in 
that  earth  house,  were  many  such  treasures  as  some 
man,  I  know  not  who,  in  days  of  yore  with  thoughtful 
purpose  had  hidden  there,  the  beloved  possessions,  the 
vast  legacy  of  anioble  race."  For  three  hundred  winters 
the  hoard  had  been  guarded  by  a  Dragon,  until  some 
"sin-perplexed  soul"  had  blundered  into  it  and  taken 
away  a  precious  cup  what  time  the  Dragon  slept.  Furious 
at  the  theft,  the  monster  ravaged  and  burned  the  land 
of  the  Goths,  nay,  gave  the  house  of  Beowulf  himself  to 
flames.  That  ancient  warrior  rouses  himself  for  a  last 
light,  single-handed  as  of  old.  With  eleven  other  warriors 

127 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

lie  goes ;  but  there  is  a  thirteenth- — he  who  had  been 
there  before,  he  must  show  the  way.     Arrived  at  the 
headland  where  lies  the  treasure  mound,  Beowulf  again 
recounts  his  warlike  deeds,  and  then  "  uttered  for  the 
last  time  words  of  vaunting  promise  "  :   "I  ventured 
on  many  battles  in  my  youth ;  once  more  will  I,  the 
aged  guardian  of  my  people,  go  into  the  fight  and  do 
gloriously  if  the  fell-destroyer  will  come  forth  to  me 
out  of  his  earth  chamber." — "  Await  ye  on  the  mound, 
clad  in   your  mail-coats,  ye  men  in  your  battle-gear, 
which  of  us  two  can   best  survive  wounds  after  the 
deadly  onslaught.     It  is  not  your  adventure,   nor  of 
any  man,  save  mine  alone,  to  measure  strength  with 
the  monster  and  do  deeds  of  earlship.     I  will  not  flee 
a  foot's  length  from  the  keeper  of  the  mound,  but  it 
shall  be  for  us  as  Wyrd,  the  allotter  of  every  man, 
decrees  for  us."     The  fight  begins;   the  Dragon  spurts 
fire;  the  war-sword  of  Beowulf  fails  in  the  fight;  the 
hero  is  doomed  to  death.    "  No  pleasant  journey  was 
it  that  the  great  son  of  Ecgtheow  (Beowulf)  should 
have  to  leave  the  earth,  against  his  will  inhabit  a  dwell- 
ing elsewhere;  but  so  must  every  man  give  up  allotted 
days."  *     Again  they  closed,  while  his  comrades  fled. 
But  one  young  warrior,  Wiglaf,  reproaches  the  others 
for  benefits  forgot,  and,  grasping  his  sword,  rushes  into 
the  fight.    "  Now,  O  Atheling  of  the  single  heart,  famous 
for  deeds,  must  thou  defend  thy  life  with  all  thy  might ! 
I  will  help  thee  !  "     But  Wiglaf 's  shield  was  burned 
up   to  the  boss  by  the  fire-waves;    Beowulf's   brand 
"  Naegling  "  snapped  asunder,  and  it  was  Wiglaf's  sword 
that  plunged  into  the  Dragon's  body.     Beowulf's  knife, 
the  staying-knife,  keen  and  battle-sharp,  was  ready  in 
his  hand,  and  "  cut  through  the  Dragon  to  the  middle  "  ; 
and   so   the   enemy   is   slain.     But   Beowulf   also   has 
received  his  death  wound;  he  knows  his  end  is  nigh. 
He   briefly  reviews  his  life,  not  without  a  touch   of 
his  wonted  pride  :    "  Fifty  winters  have  I  ruled  this 
people.     No   people's  king  of  those  dwelling  around, 
not  any  of  them,  durst  meet  me  with  his  war-friends, 
oppress  me  with  terror.     In  my  home  I  abided  time's 

1  "  Alaetan   ten   dagas "  =  "  Surrender   the   days   lent   to   him." 
Beowulf,  1.  2692. 

128 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

shaping,  held  my  own  well,  sought  no  treacherous 
quarrels  nor  swore  many  oaths  unrightly.  In  all  this, 
sick  as  I  am  with  mortal  wounds,  I  may  have  comfort, 
because  the  Ruler  of  Men  cannot  upbraid  me  with  the 
murder  of  kinsmen,  when  my  life  parts  from  my  body." — 
"  Quick,  beloved  Wiglaf ;  bring  forth  the  treasure,  that 
I  may  see  the  ancient  wealth,  the  golden  possessions, 
may  well  survey  the  bright,  curious  gems ;  that  because 
of  the  treasure-wealth  I  may  more  calmly  leave  my 
life  and  lordship  which  I  have  long  held."  All  this  is 
done ;  the  Hero  gives  orders  for  a  funeral  mound  to  be 
erected  for  him  :  "  it  shall  tower  high  on  Whale's  Ness,  . 
as  a  memorial  for  m^  people,  so  that  seafarers  who 
drive  tall  ships  from  afar  over  the  mists  of  ocean  may 
call  it  in  after-time  '  Beowulf's  Mound.' '  — "  Thou,  O 
Wiglaf,  art  the  last  remnant  of  our  race  of  the  Wseg- 
mundings.  Fate  has  swept  away  all  my  kinsmen,  earls 
in  valour,  to  the  appointed  doom.  I  must  after  them." 
That  was  the  old  King's  last  word  from  the  thoughts 
of  his  breast  ere  he  sought  the  funeral  pile,  the  hot, 
destroying  flames.  His  soul  departed  from  his  bosom 
to  seek  the  doom  of  the  righteous.  This,  I  have  heard, 
is  the  fate  of  all  those,  whoever  they  be,  who  disturb 
with  hands  a  treasure  chamber,  if  they  find  the  waking 
guardian  dwelling  in  the  mound." 

Wiglaf  nobly,  if  bitterly,  tells  the  ten  cowards  what 
he  thinks  of  them,  and  lets  them  know  their  doom. 
"  Every  man  of  your  Kin-burgh  will  have  to  wander, 
deprived  of  land-rights,  as  soon  as  the  Athelings  shall 
liear  from  afar  of  your  flight,  your  inglorious  deed  ! 
Better  is  death  for  every  one  of  noble  birth  than  a  life 
of  shame  !  " 

A  messenger  bears  the  sad  news  to  the  camp  on  the 
cliff,  and  forebodes  woe  to  his  people  as  the  result  of 
Beowulf's  death.  With  great  Jionour  the  Hero's  body  is 
committed  to  the  flames  :  "  the  wood-reek  mounted  up 
black  above  the  burning  pile ;  the  roaring  flame  mingled 
with  the  sound  of  weeping  when  the  tumult  of  the  wind 
had  ceased."  For  ten  days  they  built  the  War-Hero's 
beacon.  The  remains  of  the  burning  they  surrounded 
with  a  wall  such  as  skilled  men  could"  most  worthily 
devise.  In  the  mound  they  placed  rings  and  jewels; 
K  129 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

all  such  adornments  as  the  war-minded  men  had  before 
taken  from  the  hoard.  They  left  the  treasure  of  earls 
to  the  earth  to  hold — the  gold  in  the  ground  where 
now  it  yet  remains,  as  useless  to  men  as  it  was  before  ! 
"  Then  around  the  funeral  mound  rode  twelve  battle- 
brave  Athelings,  sons  of  earls.  They  would  lament  their 
loss,  mourn  their  King,  utter  the  word-lay  and  speak 
of  the  Hero.  They  praised  his  nobleness,  and  greatly 
extolled  his  heroic  deed.  So  is  it  meet  that  man  should 
praise  his  friend  and  lord  with  words,  love  him  in  heart, 
when  he  must  fare  forth  from  the  fleeting  body.  Thus 
did  the  people  of  the  Goths,  companions  of  his  hearth, 
mourn  the  fall  of  their  lord ;  said  that  he  was  a  world- 
king,  mildest  of  men  and  kindest,  to  his  people  most 
gracious,  and  of  praise  most  desirous."  1 

"  These  honours  Ilium  to  her  hero  paid, 
And  peaceful  slept  the  mighty  Hector's  Shade." 

Such,  in  very  inadequate  outline,  is  the  picture  given 
by-  the  first  English  epic  of  the  character  and  conduct 
of  the  folk  whose  deeds  it  hag  immortalized.  It  is  not 
necessary,  even  if  it  were  possible,  to  claim  it  as  repre- 
senting merely  the  life  and  manners  of  those  tribes  who 
founded  the  Anglo-Saxon  realm  of  England ;  although, 
even  on  that  supposition,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
the  claim  could  be  made  on  behalf  of  a  greater  number 
of  Teutonic  tribes  than  is  often  supposed.  We  can 
accept  with  content  the  conclusions  of  scholarship  that 
the  Beowulf  Saga  depicted  actions  and  represented  ideas 
\vhich  were  the  common  property  of  the  whole  Teutonic 
family  of  peoples.  And  can  any  one  doubt  that  in 
Beowulf  we  find  substantially  the  same  characteristics 
in  the  Teutonic  tribes  as  we  have  already  found  them 
possessing  in  the  Germania  of  Tacitus  ? 

Both  authors  alike,  the  detached  foreign  critic  and 
the  patriotic  poet,  describe  the  brave  and  splendid 
passion  for  war-like  adventure;  the  hate  and  disgust 

1  "  Lof-geomost,"  a  beautiful  phrase,  and  a  beautiful  end  to  the 
poem — 

"...  he  wsere  woruld-cyning 
Mannum  mildust  and  monj?waerust, 
Leodum  li)?ost  and  lof-geornost." 

(11.  3182-4.) 

130 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

at  cowardice ;  the  honour  paid  to  woman ;  the  whole- 
hearted disposition  for  hospitality ;  the  devotion  to  king 
and  chief,  whom  it  is  eternal  ignominy  to  desert  in 
danger;  the  pleasure  taken  in  gifts,  both  for  their 
material  value  and  their  social  significance;  the  shame 
of  adultery;  the  too-great  love  of  inebriety;  the  taste 
for  minstrelsy  and  ancient  epic  Song;  the  personal 
independence ;  the  pride  in  one's  own  achievements. 
There  are  differences,  of  course,  differences  such  as  those 
which  might  mark  a  counsel's  and  a  judge's  description 
of  the  same  person.  Tacitus  could  not  possibly  tell 
us  all  the  virtues,  perhaps  not  all  the  faults,  since 
his  knowledge  was  limited  and  his  bias  was  Roman. 
The  English  poet  would  not  tell  us  all  the  faults, 
because  his  bias  was  patriotic ;  perhaps  not  all  the 
virtues,  because  the  scheme  of  his  poem  did  not  call 
for  their  mention.  But  the  elements  of  character  are 
substantially  the  same.  During  four  centuries  of  inter- 
tribal movement  there  had  been  a  gradual  approach  to 
a  firmer  and  more  elaborate  civilization.  The  whole 
entourage  of  the  Beowulf  peoples  is  more  dignified  in 
its  external  aspects  than  that  of  the  tribes  of  Germania ; 
there  is  richer  adornment  in  the  mansion,  more 
elaboration  in  the  dress,  more  pomp  and  complexity 
in  the  armour.  And  the  people  of  Beowulf  have  the 
sea,  the  sea  whose  multitudinous  aspects  are  expressed 
in  so  many  phrases  of  direct  simplicity;  the  ships,  its 
tender  epithets  for  which  are  one  of  the  marvels  of  the 
poem.  What  the  sea  means  as  a  moulder  of  character 
none  know  better  than  the  English.  The  courage  that 
faces  its  dangers,  that  dares  its  storms  and  does  not 
fear  its  depths,  is  a  totally  different  virtue  to  any 
courage  shown  by  the  inland  dweller.  This  courage  the 
folk  of  the  Beowulf  possess;  it  blows  through  the 
atmosphere  of  the  poem  like  an  east  wind;  it  is  courage 
without  the  thirst  for  blood  that  marks  the  courage  of 
the  tribes  of  Tacitus. 

But  the  chief  value  of  the  English  poem  is  that  it 
shows  the  people  in  possession  of  a  national  ideal,  an 
ideal  marked  by  dignity  and  nobility  in  spite  of  blots, 
the  dignity  and  nobility  being  personal  and  permanent, 
the  blots  being  those  of  the  time.  It  would  be  easy 

131 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

to  construct  from  Tacitus  the  elements  of  such  an  ideal 
as  that  afterwards  perfected  in  Beowulf;  but  any  ideal 
that  may  have  existed  could  have  had  little  national 
significance  owing  to  the  state  of  mutual  war  in  which 
the  various  tribes  endured.  It  was  only  when  a  common 
environment  with  common  dangers  and  experiences 
produced  common  sentiments  in  a  particular  con- 
glomeration of  tribes  that  a  common  ideal  could  be 
created,  and  as  "  without  a  vision  the  people  perish eth  " 
it  was  only  with  the  formation  of  a  common  ideal  that 
national  life  became  possible.  We  have  every  reason 
for  the  belief  that  the  character  of  Beowulf  as  handed 
down  in  the  Saga  from  generation  to  generation  was 
the  common  possession  of  all  the  tribes  who  shared  in 
the  invasion  of  England;  and  the  shape  which  that 
character  took  in  the  poem  as  written  in  England 
marks,  more  than  all  the  detailed  events  of  Anglo-Saxon 
history,  the -state  at  which  the  consciousness  of  national 
unity  had  then  arrived.  It  is  thus  highly  important 
to  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  the  character  of  Beowulf  as 
exhibited  in  the  poem,  and  we  shall,  therefore,  not 
apologize  for  reconstructing  it  as  fairly  as  possible  from 
the  indications  given  in  the  Saga. 

Beowulf  is  not  a  gentleman  in  the  Victorian  sense  of 
the  term ;  not  in  the  Elizabethan ;  nor  is  he  the  "  verray 
parfit  gentil  knight  "  of  Chaucer.  Sans  peur  he  may 
be,  but  sans  reproche  he  is  not,  and  perhaps  an  ideal 
is  not  less  helpful  to  conduct  for  having  some  portion 
of  human  weakness  to  bring  it  nearer  to  our  imitation. 
Beowulf  is  very  boastful,  as  boastful  as  an  Homeric 
hero ;  but  his  boasts  are  either  records  of  actual  deeds 
or  faithful  promises  of  future  performances.  He  can 
be  very  angry;  but  such  men  as  Unferth  were  made 
to  be  angry  with,  until  they  repent,  when  anger  is  lost 
in  forgiveness.  He  has  not  broken  many  oaths;  but 
who  of  Beowulf's  later  kin  can  put  his  hand  upon  his 
heart  and  swear  that  he  has  been  always  true  ?  Besides, 
is  it  certain  that  in  the  land  and  among  the  people 
where  the  Saga  first  took  shape  these  blemishes  were 
blemishes  at  all  ?  The  Christian  English  poet  sprinkles 
the  Pagan  tale  with  Holy  Water,  and,  as  in  many  a  Chris- 
tian legend,  its  miraculous  power  exposes  as  evil  what 

132 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

had  hitherto  seemed  fair  and  pure.  But  the  Christian 
church  shows  many  traces  of  having  once  been  a  Pagan 
temple;  and  much  remains  unchanged  in  its  original 
beauty  and  goodness.  Beowulf  has  all  the  bravery  of 
his  people ;  but  his  bravery  is  not  mere  bareserk  love  of 
slaughter.  He  rides  about  redressing  human  wrongs, 
and  his  courage  and  self-sacrifice  are  most  conspicuous 
when  the  enemy  is  most  terrible  and  supernatural.  He 
accepts  the  becoming  rewards  with  grace  and  dignity; 
they  are  the  legitimate  guerdon  of  his  valour  and  skill, 
the  ancient  counterpart  to  the  wealth  and  honours 
which  his  modern  kinsmen  to  this  very  day  bestow 
upon  their  successful  leaders.  It  would  be  churlish 
to  refuse,  no  less  for  the  sake  of  the  givers  than  for  the 
sake  of  those  among  whom  the  bounty  will  in  turn  be 
generously  distributed.  But  the  great  note  in  the  man 
is  his  naked  loneliness  of  soul.  Possessing  in  himself 
his  own  desire,  he  grapples  with  his  enemies  alone,  at 
times  with  no  resources  but  his  own  unconquerable 
spirit.  And  with  all  this  essential  greatness  he  possesses 
what  greatness  so  often  neglects- — the  minor  graces  and 
charities  which  give  social  life  its  charrn  and  beauty. 
Courteous  and  urbane;  grateful  and  generous;  nobly 
ambitious,  but  capable  of  self-abnegation;  loving  his 
kindred,  and  quickly  ready  to  forgive  a  passing  fault : 
here  is  a  character  which,  if  it  does  not  attain  to  all 
the  Aristotelian  virtues,  all  the  Christian  graces,  all  the 
chivalrous  accomplishments  of  the  Spenserian  or  Tenny- 
sonian  heroes,  is  yet  clearly  akin  to  them  in  the  essential 
features  of  their  character.  Can  we  wonder  that  the 
Anglo-Saxon  people,  bringing  this  with  them  as  a 
universal  ideal,  were  able  to  forget  their  tribal  differ- 
ences, and,  aided  of  course  by  the  special  environment 
of  their  new  home,  develop  that  national  consciousness 
which  fitted  them  for  the  great  destiny  which  is  yet  in 
process  of  c.  jcomplishment  ? 


133 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Growth  of  Anglo-Saxon  Nationality:  (1)  Political  Development; 
(2)  Social  Development — Political :  Gradual  Union  of  small  war 
Bands  under  more  powerful  Princes;  Growth  of  separate  King- 
doms: Northumbria;  Mercia;  Wessex — The  Danish  Invasion — 
The  Policy  of  Alfred — His  Army;  his  Fleet;  his  Aristocracy; 
his  nationalizing  Policy  towards  the  Danes — Political  Union  at  the 
Date  of  the  Norman  Conquest — Social :  The  Village  Community ; 
its  Commingling  of  different  racial  Elements;  the  Influences 
affecting  its  Development — The  Growth  of  national  and  of  local 
Patriotism — The  Influence  of  the  Church;  of  foreign  Travel;  of 
Commerce  and  the  Life  of  Towns — The  Norman  Conquest :  the 
Beginning  of  a  new.  Process  of  Change  and  Amalgamation. 

IN  the  two  preceding  chapters  we  have  endeavoured  to 
illustrate  the  view  which  regards  the  character  of  a 
community  in  one  generation  as  the  basis  of  a  tradition 
which  reappears  in  a  later  generation  with  similarities 
due  to  the  continuity  of  the  communal  life,  and  differ- 
ences due  to  the  variations  of  environmental  experience 
which  have  modified  and  developed  it.  That  some  of 
the  specific  and  characteristic  qualities  of  the  Germans 
of  Tacitus  reappear  in  the  people  of  the  epic  of  Beowulf 
is  undeniable;  that  there  are  differences  is  equally 
undeniable.  That  the  identities  are  due  to  continuity 
of  tradition,  and  the  difference^  due  to  variations  of 
environment,  are  conclusions  which  must  be  accepted 
by  those  who  admit  the  weight  of -the  criticisms  pre- 
viously directed  upon  the  alternative  explanation  of 
hereditary  racial  qualities.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
how  a  popular  vice,  such  as  drunkenness,  or,  let  us  say, 
the  tendency  to  inebriety,  passes  from  one  generation 
to  another  in  the  same  community  owing  to  the  force 
of  example  and  the  direct  teaching  which  inculcates  it 
as  a  praiseworthy  accomplishment.  It  is  a  notorious 
fact  that  this  particular  tendency  has  been  a  con- 
spicuous feature  in  our  continuous  national  develop- 
ment from  the  Germania  down  to  the  Flying  Inn.  The 

134 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

family  atmosphere  and  the  popular  tradition  alike  have 
encouraged  it  until  quite  late  in  our  history,  when 
attempts  have  been  made,  with  considerable  though 
incomplete  success,  to  modify  both  the  home  influence 
and  the  social  atmosphere  in  the  direction  of  dis- 
couraging the  tendency  by  changing  the  environment 
in  which  it  has  been  matured.  Even  those  who  con- 
tend that  drunkenness  is  a  racial  vice  must  admit  that 
it  can  be  eradicated  by  modifying  the  environment; 
and  to  admit  this  is  to  deny  the  value  of  race  as  a 
practical  factor  in  social  development.  There  were  other 
qualities,  both  vices  and  virtues,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  marked  our  ancestors  of  the  days  of  Tacitus  and 
of  the  days  of  Beowulf  alike ;  some  of  them,  both  vices 
and  virtues,  have  been  continuous  elements  in  our 
character  as  a  people;  but  the  people  of  Beowulf 
possessed  some  characteristics  not  exhibited  by  their 
predecessors,  and  we,  their  successors  through  many 
generations,  have  continually  exhibited  new  character- 
istics, while  maintaining  a  continuous  tradition  in  regard 
to  some  of  the  old  characteristics.  It  is  to  the  constant 
intermingling  of  the  newer  environments  with  the  older  - 
traditions  that  the  varying  development  of  national 
character  is  due;  and,  as  we  have  already  suggested, 
the  development  of  nationality  is  itself  dependent  upon 
the  operation  of  the  same  principle — the  formation  of 
a  common  tradition,  and  its  continuous  modification  by 
the  operation  of  a  common  change  of  environment. 

Any  attempt  to  describe  the  process  by  which  the 
intermingling  of  various  tribes  and  traditions  contributed 
to  the  formation  and  consolidation  of  nationality  in 
Anglo-Saxon  times  must,  of  course,  take  into  account 
the  fact  that  we  still  need,  and  probably  shall  never 
get,  that  full  documentary  illumination  without  whose 
aid  absolute  precision  of  statement  is  impossible.  The 
Anglo-Saxons  produced  no  Herodotus  or  Livy,  possibly 
because  events  were  not  sufficiently  inspiring  to  evoke 
the  highest  energies  of  historical  genius;  possibly 
because  the  finest  intelligences  were  too  much  enthralled 
by  active  participation  in  events  to  spare  time  and 
effort  to  write  books  about  them.  The  endeavour,  at 
any  rate,  to  see  things  and  persons  as  they  actually 

135 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

were  is  too  often  faced  by  a  cloud  of  almost  palpable 
darkness,  into  which  we  ardently  peer  in  the  hope  of 
making  out  the  definite  shape  of  some  looming  vague- 
ness which  should  mean  something,  if  only  we  could 
see  it  steadily  and  see  it  whole.  Even  the  very  latest 
historian  of  the  period  admits,  in  perhaps  too  pessimistic 
a  mood,  that  what  he  tells  us  is  guesswork,  though  it 
is  the  guesswork  of  historical  experts  and  specialists 
"  who  have  pieced  together  every  bit  of  information," 
and  though  it  agrees  with  what  is  actually  known  of 
the  real  events  and  people  of  the  time.1 

We  need  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  if  this  paucity 
of  definite  material  leaves  room  for  wide  differences  of 
opinion  as  to  the  national  value  of  what  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  accomplished.  Even  in  cases  where  the  historical 
canvas  presents  a  series  of  naturally  co-ordinated  events 
and  a  group  of  well-known  personages,  the  historical 
critic  too  often  finds  means  to  impose  his  own,  person- 
ality upon  them  to  such  an  extent  as  to  confuse  the 
plainest  issues  and  to  distort  the  clearest  facts;  and 
in  the  present  case  we  can  -distinctly  see  two  currents 
of  subjective  predilection  causing  two  fundamentally 
opposite  views  of  the  nature  and  value  of 'the  Anglo- 
Saxon  contribution  to  our  national  progress.  On  the 
one  hand,  we  have  those  historians  who  are  so  dominated 
by  a  sense  of  the  high  state  of  civilization  introduced 
into  Britain  by  the  Romans  that  they  can  feel  nothing 
but  regret  that  it  was  crushed  and  obliterated  by  a 
mob  of  brutal  barbarians  with  their  "  quarrels  of  kites 
and  crows."  On  the  other,  there  is  that/wror  Teutonicus 
which  bases  everything  that  is  great  and  precious  in 
our  social  and  political  institutions  upon  the  foundations 
laid  by  the  German  invaders,  and  eliminates  both  Roman 
and  Celt  as  influences  contributing  to  our  national 
culture  and  tradition.2 

1  "  The  People  of  England,"  by  Sir  Stanley  Leathes,  K.C.B.,  M.A. 
(The  People  in  the  Making.    Wm.  Heinemann,  1915). 

2  Maitland,  who  is  in  general  an  advocate  of  Teutonismus,  admits 
the  survival  of  both  Roman  and  Celtic  elements  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
arrangements  for  land  tenure  and  cultivation.     Domesday  Book  and 
Beyond,  by  Frederic  William  Maitland,  LL.D.  (Cambridge  University 
Press,  1907),  pp.  221-2.     See  also  p.  351  :   "  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  in  Britain  numerous  villages  were  formed  which  reproduced  in 

136 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

If,  "however,  we  hold  our  minds  free  from  these 
temperamental  prepossessions  of  the  subjective  historian, 
we  cannot  but  see  that  the  growth  of  civilization  is 
almost  universally  an  amalgamating  process  by  which 
the  traditions  of  different  communities  are  intermingled 
to  form  a  newer  social  organism;  and  that,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  precise  part  played  by  each  of  the 
combining  traditions,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that 
any  two  peoples  ever  commingled  without  some  elements 
of  the  separate  traditions  entering  into  the  later  com- 
bination. Our  Anglo-Saxon  history,  even  as  described 
by  those  who  regret  it  most  as  a  destructive  and  not 
a  consolidating  agency,  itself  gives  emphatic  support  to 
this  statement  of  the  general  law  of  social  evolution. 
Thus  Sir  Stanley  Leathes,  who  says  that  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon  invasions  "  we  have  now  come  to  a  time 
when  the  higher  and  better  was  destroyed  by  the  lower 
— the  Roman  way  of  life  by  the  Anglo-Saxon" — and 
holds  that  "  all  that  this  country  gained  thereby  was 
a  certain  brutal  spirit  of  freedom,"  *•  is  able  to  crowd  his 
too-abbreviated  pages  with  interesting  details  which  show 
as  clearly  as  possible  that  the  Anglo-Saxons,  too,  were  but 
runners  in  the  great  Lucretian  torch  race  of  tradition, 
and  that  even  their  flickering  light  was  not  altogether 
their  own,  but  was  strengthened  by  beams  borrowed 
from  many  primeval  and  coeval  flames.  In  his  pages 
we  catch  glimpses  of  tribes  and  companies  under  separate 
leaders  growing  into  composite  kingdoms ;  the  invading 
Saxons  marrying  captive  British  women,  cultivating 
their  land  by  the  ancient  open-field  method,  and  learn- 
ing the  use  of  agricultural  tools  from  the  Romanized 
Britains;  the  free  men  of  the  "hundred"  building  up 
their  laws,  customs  and  tenure  of  property,  and  making 
arrangements  for  the  protection  of  British  and  Welsh. 
The  social  institution  of  the  hundred  is  gradually 
merged  into  the  wider  corporation  of  the  county;  the 

all  essentials  the  villages  which  Saxons  and  Angles  had  left  behind 
them  on  the  mainland,  and  as  little  doubt  that,  very  often,  in  the 
west  and  south-west  of  Britain,  German  kings  and  eorls  took  to 
themselves  integral  estates,  the  boundaries  and  agrarian  arrangement 
whereof  had  been  drawn  by  Romans,  or  rather  by  Celts." 
1  Leathes,  TJie  People  in  the  Making,  Chap.  III. 

137 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

local  kings  impose  peace  and  union  among  their  quarrel- 
some people,  and  substitute  the  family  feud  by  the 
were-gild.  They  take  the  Romanized  towns  and  the 
people  in  them  under  their  protection,  and  profit  by 
their  long-established  trade  and  industry,  founding 
markets  there  and  special  courts  of  justice.  We  witness 
the  growth  of  the  thanehood,  the  warrior-servants  of 
the  King ;  the  gradual  conversion  of  the  kings  and  their 
people  to  Christianity,  with  all  that  this  great  event 
brought  of  foreign  culture  into  the  native  atmosphere; 
the  Church  introducing  writing  and  other  civilizing  arts 
and  practices ;  the  transformation  of  folk-land  into  book- 
land;  the  management  of  estates  by  foreign  monks; 
the  gradual  appropriation  of  a  fourth  of  the  land  to 
the  Church,  its  bishops  and  its  abbots;  the  rise  of  a 
landed  aristocracy,  lay  and  ecclesiastical.  We  learn  of 
the  growth  of  composite  kingdoms  like  Northumbria, 
East  Anglia  and  Mercia;  then  of  their  disappearance 
into  larger  agglomerations;  of  the  imposition  of  the 
Danegeld  to  provide  means  for  the  defence  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  land  against  the  Danish  invader;  of 
the  transformation  of  this  special  impost  into  a 
general  tax ;  of  the  direct  influence  of  foreign  manners 
in  civilizing  the  natives;  of  the  monks  working  hard 
themselves  and  teaching  industry  to  others,  introducing 
new  methods  of  agriculture,  draining  the  marshes  and 
reclaiming  the  waste,  bringing  in  glass  from  the  Con- 
tinent, writing  beautiful  manuscripts,  teaching  singing 
and  the  use  of  musical  instruments.  Then  we  are  told 
of  the  effect  of  the  Danish  invasion  on  English  law  and 
social  life,  and  of  a  thousand  other  details  bearing 
witness  to  a  vast  intermingling  of  variegated  traditions 
to  form  the  new  English  people.  We  have  coins  copied 
from  those  minted  in  Byzantium;  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  London  with  its  traders,  Frenchmen  from  the  Channel 
coast,  men  of  the  Low  Countries  and  Germans  from 
Cologne.  And  the  final  words  of  this  vigorous,  pictur- 
esque and  crowded  chapter  give  us  all  we  need  as  a 
tribute  to  that  principle  of  social  growth  whose  opera- 
tion is  no  less  evident  in  England  before  the  Conquest 
than  at  any  other  place  and  period  of  recorded  history  : 
'  The  Anglo-Saxon  period  began  with  destruction.  It 
ended  by  giving  us  our  English  people,  in  which  Angles 

138 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

and  Saxons  and  Danes  were  merged  with  Britons.  It 
gave  us  one  king  and  one  kingdom,  divided  into  hundreds 
and  counties.  It  gave  us  6ne  Church;  and  the  Church 
gave  us  religion,  reading  and  writing,  and  written  law. 
.  .  .  But  it  needed  the  Norman  rule  to  bring  out  by 
discipline  the  worth  that  was  in  the  people."  x  Else- 
where we  have  the  statement  that  "  for  the  most  part 
our  knowledge  and  our  customs  come  to  us  from  our 
ancestors,  who  acquired  that  knowledge  and  improved 
those  customs  with  infinite  labour  and  suffering.  Among 
these  ancestors  are  the  Anglo-Saxons  " ;  2  and  Sir  Stanley 
Leathes  thus  happily  modifies  his  statement  that  all  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  gave  this  country  was  "  a  certain  brutal 
spirit  of  freedom."  Fortified  by  this  testimony,  the 
author  will  fyave  the  less  hesitation  in  proceeding  in 
his  own  way  to  develop  the  principle  of  organic  con- 
tinuity of  common  interest  as  illustrated  by  the  evolu- 
tion of  Anglo-Saxon  history,  with  the  proviso  that,  in 
matters  where  the  facts  are  uncertain  or  obscure,  he 
has  not  presented  as  his  own  view  any  opinion  not 
accepted  by  the  most  careful  and  cautious  modern 
historians  of  the  various  schools. 

We  have  already  observed  how  heterogeneous  were 
the  racial  constituents  of  the  confederations  of  tribes 
who,  after  their  occupation  of  England,  became  known 
under  the  general  title  of  the  "  Anglo-Saxons."  That  this 
racial  diversity  operated  to  delay  the  final  consummation 
of  political  union  cannot  be  denied,  inasmuch  as  racial 
diversity  is  an  index  of  diversity  of  historical  environment. 
But  neither  can  it  be  asserted  that  this  racial  diversity 
pointed  to  the  possession  of  special  aptitudes  in  any 
one  race  eternally  unfitting  it  for  political  and  social 
amalgamation  with  the  other  races.  Two  broad  and 
incontrovertible  assertions  can  be  made  relative  to  the 
historical  evolution  of  Anglo-Saxonia ;  the  one  indicating 
that  the  political  union  of  the  various  tribes  was  event- 
ually accomplished,  the  other  maintaining  that  this 
consummation  was  not  effected  until  after  several  cent- 
uries of  internecine  and  even  fratricidal  warfare.  The 
one  makes  it  clear  that  diversity  of  race  did  not  prevent 
social  union  around  a  sphere  of  common  interests,  the 
other  that  common  kinship,  even  where  it  existed,  did  not 
1  Leathes,  p.  71.  2  Ibid.,  p.  60r 

139 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

bring  a  common  national  sentiment  until  the  pressure  of 
a  common  environment  established  the  recognition  of 
common  interests.  The  real  cause  of  the  union  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  states  can  no  more  be  sought  in  identity 
of  racial  endowment  than  the  delay  in  effecting  this 
union  can  be  assigned  to  diversity  of  racial  endowment. 
If  there  was  unity  of  race  it  did  not,  of  itself,  secure 
political  unity.  If  there  was  racial  diversity  it  did  not 
prevail  to  maintain  political  disunion.  Political  dis- 
union was  due  to  the  competition  between  tribes  and 
kingdoms  with  hostile  interests ;  political  union  was  due 
to  the  pressure  of  circumstances  which  weakened  or 
destroyed  the  various  conflicting  interests  in  favour  of 
an  ever-broadening  community  of  interest. 

Whether  we  turn  to  politics  in  the  narrower  sense; 
whether  we  investigate  the  more  interesting  spheres  of 
social  life  and  progress;  whether  we  deal  with  trade 
or  commerce,  with  the  fine  or  the  utilitarian  arts,  we 
find  everywhere  the  tendencies  of  national  development 
in  Anglo-Saxonia  associated  with  the  tendency  to  find 
common  spheres  of  interest  and  activity  for  the  innum- 
erable sporadic  bands  who  found  themselves  in  agri- 
cultural and  pastoral  possession  of  Britain  when  the 
process  of  military  settlement  was  over.  The  history 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  England  on  the  political  side  is 
the  history  of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  these 
small  and  scattered  communities  to  form  larger  agglomer- 
ative  districts  for  military  and  administrative  purposes, 
and  the  eventual  union  of  these,  at  various  removes, 
into  the  kingdom  of  England.  Racial  quarrels  and 
family  pride  had  to  give  way  beneath  the  weight  of 
the  common  nece'ssity  to  live  in  security  and  comfort, 
and  the  institutions  which  made  this  possible  became 
the  aegis  of  the  common  hopes  and  the  radiating  centres 
of  common  influence.  It  is  the  practical  recognition  of 
this  fact,  although  in  different  phrasing,  which  has 
enabled  Kemble  and  Green  and  Oman  to  give  to  the 
wars  of  the  Heptarchy  a  distinction  and  an  interest 
which  could  not  attach  to  them  as  the  mere  "  quarrels 
of  kites  and  crows  " ;  and  which,  in  spite  of  the  poverty 
of  the  facts  and  of  the  imagination  of  those  who  first 
recorded  them,  has  restored  to  our  early  history  some 

140 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

of  the  dignity  and  humanity  with  which  Herodotus  and 
Thucydides  invested  the  records  of  Hellenic  wars. 
Politics,  in  the  common  sense  of  the  term,  is  but  the 
outer  shell  of  the  process  of  social  development,  having 
no  real  significance  apart  from  the  living  forces  which 
burn  and  strive  beneath  it ;  and  those  histories  are  most 
interesting  and  fruitful  which  trace  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  social  tradition  as  moulding  the 
political  institutions  which  form  its  outer  framework. 
But  if,  for  the  present,  we  admit  the  usual  distinction, 
and  turn  to  the  specifically  political  side  of  Anglo-Saxon 
history,  we  find  that  the  operating  causes  of  the  final 
amalgamation  were  causes  leading  to  that  intermingling 
of  hostile,  or  at  any  rate  differing,  environments  which 
gradually  forms  a  common  environment.  If  we  run 
briefly  over  the  causes  which  operated  in  this  direction, 
we  find  early  evidence  that  the  tendency  of  the*  settled 
invaders  was  to  found  an  infinite  number  of  petty 
kingdoms,  whose  constant  wars  with  their  immediate 
neighbours  resulted  in  the  disappearance  of  many  of 
them  to  form  henceforth  unrecognizable  portions  of 
more  potent  states.  Gentile  aggregations  gave  way  to 
territorial  combinations;  such,  a  combination,  more 
powerful  or  more  warlike  than  its  neighbours,  spread 
its  limits  by  conquest.  The  innumerable  kingdoms 
which  partitioned  the  conquered  land  into  so  many 
competing  spheres  of  interest  at  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century  themselves  underwent  the  same  process  of 
conflict  and  amalgamation  which  had  produced  them; 
and  they  in  turn  had  to  give  way  to  the  ever -active 
competitive  tendency  which  led  to  the  establishment 
of  still  larger  territorial  aggregations  under  the  authority 
of  fewer  and  more  powerful  monarchs,  Thus,  in  the 
year  588,  King  ^Ethelric  of  Bernicia  amalgamated  the 
warring  kingdoms  of  Bernicia  and  Deira  into  the  kingdom 
of  Northumbria,  and  twenty  years  later,  "  instead  of  a 
chaos  of  isolated  peoples,  the  conquerors  were  now,  in 
fact,  gathered  into  three  great  groups," 1  those  of 
Northumbria,  Mercia  and  Wessex,  whose  rivalry  for 
the  mastery  of  all  the  land  lasted  until  the  opening  of 
the  ninth  century,  when  Ecgberht's  conquests  of  Mercia 
1  Green's  Short  History  (under  A.D.  588  and  607). 
141 


and  Northumbria  made  it  finally  possible  for  Alfred  to 
govern  the  English  people  as  a  national  whole,  and  for 
Eadred  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  to  become 
the  first  king  at  whose  coronation  Briton,  Saxon  and 
Dane  alike  were  represented. 

The  unity  thus  secured  was  not  a  unity  due  to  com- 
munity of  race;  it  was  a  unity  of  common  interest, 
finally,  and  in  many  cases  forcibly,  effected  in  spite  of 
diversity  of  race.  Even  where  the  union  was  not 
accomplished  by  warlike  means,  it  was  not  due  to 
original  racial  unity,  but  to  other  causes,  which,  with 
equal  effect,  extended  the  environment  of  the  separate 
peoples  to  include  those  of  their  hitherto  hostile  neigh- 
bours. The  Goths  of  Kent  became  united  to  the  Saxons 
of  Wessex,  not  because  they  were  racially  one  with  them, 
but  because  the  intermarrying  of  the  two  royal  houses 
at  last  accidentally  made  the  heir  of  the  one  kingdom 
the  heir  of  the  other  as  well. 

But  whether  the  amalgamation  was  effected  by 
peaceful  or  violent  means  the  result  was  the  same ;  and 
the  political  environment  of  all  Englishmen  was  iden- 
tified under  a  common  law,  a  central  administration 
and  a  common  ideal  of  kingship. 

The  national  community  of  interest  thus  established 
was  further  corroborated  by  the  long  national  struggle 
against  the  Danes,  and  by  the  measures  which  the 
national  kings,  especially  Alfred,  took  to  secure  the 
national  existence  against  them.  Alfred's  army  and 
Alfred's  fleet  were  at  once  a  symbol  of  the  national 
consciousness  and  a  rampart  of  the  national  existence. 
The  fleet  was  a  natural  result  of  the  change  of  political 
environment  effected  by  the  discovery,  cruelly  driven 
home  by  the  Danes,  that  England  was  an  island.  The 
people  as  a  whole  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  primal 
factor  in  their  situation.  That  love  and  mastery  of  the 
sea  which  are  supposed  to  be  the  racial  endowment  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  have,  of  course,  been  dependent  for 
their  existence  upon  favourable  conditions  of  environ- 
ment. The  inland  Germans  of  Tacitus  naturally  did 
not  possess  them;  equally  naturally  they  were  the  por- 
tion of  the  maritime  Suiones  of  the  Baltic  Islands,  and 
of  the  Frisians  who  in  his  time  occupied  the  district 

142 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

from  which  at  a  later  date  the   Angles,   Saxons  and 
Jutes  came  upon  England  in  their  long  ships.     "  The 
English,"   says  Prof.   Oman,   "  seem  to  have  lost  for 
many  generations  their  old  efficiency  at  sea:   we  hear 
nothing  of  a  fighting  fleet  between  the  days  of  Ecgfrith 
of  Northumbria  and  those  of  the  great  Alfred."  l     These 
considerations  suggest  that  too  much  weight  is  some- 
times attached  to  purely  geographical  environment  as 
an  influence  upon  national  character.     The  maritime 
Anglo-Saxons,   enveloped   for   several   centuries   in   an 
environment    of    agricultural,    pastoral     and    military 
occupations,    acquired    a    diminished    sense    of    their 
marine  surroundings,  and  Alfred  had  to  obtain  Frisian 
pirates  to  man  his  ships,   although  the  Frisians   had 
formed    a    numerous    and    important    element    in    the 
original  Anglo-Saxon  invasions.     That  the  return  to  a 
national  consciousness  of  the  sea  was  followed  by  a 
revival  of  the  old  love  and  mastery  of  it  was  an  inevit- 
able result,  and  these  qualities  have  waxed  or  waned 
in  our  national  character  as  we  have  been  more  or  less 
driven  to  a  consciousness  of  our  insular  position  and 
its  necessities.     It   is   significant  to  remember  in  this 
connexion   that  Alfred   made    a  collection    of  ancient 
English  Sagas,  and,  if  we  may  judge  of  them  by  the 
surviving  specimens  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  notably  the 
Beowulf,  the  Wanderer,  the  Seafarer  and  the  Far  Traveller, 
they  would   supply  a   living   stream    of  inspiration  to 
the  awakening  maritime  consciousness   of  the  people.2 
It  is  no  doubt  with  justice,  however,  that  in  Alfred's 
time  greater  importance  was  attached  to  the  army  than 
to  the  fleet  as  a  symbol  of  national  life  and  an  instru- 
ment of  national  defence.     Before  his  reign  the  fyrd, 
or  army  of  the  separate  shires,   had  been  formed  of 
hasty  levies  of  ceorls  and  ploughmen  called  from  their 
occupations  on  the  land  to  meet  immediate  requirements, 
thus  producing  an  institution  whose  weakness  and  want 
of  cohesion  were  soon  demonstrated  in  face  of  the  more 

1  England  before  the  Norman  Conquest,   by  Charles   Oman,   M.A. 
(Methuen  &  Co.,  1910). 

2  "  There  are  more  than  a  score  of  literal  terms  for  the  sea  in  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  the  figurative  terms  are  legion." — Germanic  Origins :  a  Study 
in  Primitive  Culture,  by  Francis  B.  Gununere,  PH.D.  (D.  Nutt,  1892). 

143 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

expert  and  better  disciplined  Danish  warriors.  Alfred's 
establishment  of  the  system  of  military  boroughs,  by 
which  fortified  strongholds  were  garrisoned  by  settlers 
who  were  held  responsible  for  their  defence  in  return 
for  the  right  of  cultivating  the  land  which  surrounded 
them,  was  accompanied  by  an  arrangement  for  calling 
out  only  one  half  of  the  army  at  a  time,  the  other  half 
relieving  the  former  at  fixed  intervals.1 

But  probably  the  most  effective  means  towards  creat- 
ing a  sense  of  national  identity  was  one  which,  if  not 
introduced  by  Alfred,  was,  at  any  rate,  in  full  working 
order  shortly  after  his  death.  This  was  the  conversion 
of  the  thegnhood  into  a  professional  military  class, 
consisting,  not  only  of  the  nobility,  but  of  ceorls  and 
merchants  possessed  of  certain  specified  qualifications 
which  were  acquired  without  difficulty  by  the  more 
energetic  members  of  the  community.2  The  existence 
of  the  thegnhood  in  England  is  an  illustration  of  the 
permanence  of  traditional  institutions  when  the  environ- 
ment is  not  hostile  to  their  continuance.  We  have  seen 
in  the  account  of  Tacitus  that  certain  chiefs,  possessed 
of  personal  influence,  surrounded  themselves  with  a 
following  of  noble  youths,  who  formed  their  comitatus 
or  bodyguard.  In  the  laws  of  ^Ethelberht  of  Kent 
(A.D.  637)  we  find  the  existence  of  the  King's  comitatus 
quite  clearly  defined.  It  appears  to  be  composed  of 
two  classes,  known  by  the  designations  of  gesith,  or 
companion,  and  thegn,  or  warrior-servant.  The  former 
was  a  landed  proprietor  who  was  a  regular  member  of 
the  royal  army ;  the  latter  was  still  a  household  retainer 
of  the  King,  as  yet  unendowed  with  the  reward  of  land.3 
In  the  laws  of  the  West  Saxons  as  promulgated  by 

1  Oman,  pp.  468-9. 

2  Sir  Stanley  Leathes  will  only  allow  us  to  say :  "  perhaps  the  thanes 
were  generally  eorls,  but  not  always  "  (p.  52).    Maitland  states  that  "  the 
prosperous  ceorl  will  be  no  thegn  until  he  has  put  himself  under  some 
lord  "  (Domesday  Book  and  Beyond,  p.  164). 

8  Oman,  p.  354.  Sir  Stanley  Leathes  (p.  52)  says :  "  Thanes — i.  e. 
strong  men,  young  men,  warriors." — "  They  attached  themselves  to  some 
great  man,  lived  in  his  house,  looked  to  him  for  food  and  drink,  clothing 
and  arms."  They  were  clearly  the  great  man's  warrior-servants. 
"  The  thegn  is  somebody's  thegn  "  (Maitland,  p.  163).  In  Domesday 
Book,  however,  the  King's  thanes  are  often  contrasted  with  the  King's 

144 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

King  Ine  (A.D.  693)  a  clear  distinction  is  drawn  between 
those  who  are  personal  servants  of  the  King  and  those 
who  are  not.  In  the  barbarous  legal  Latin  of  the  time 
the  two  ranks  are  distinguished  under  the  titles  of 
sithcundus  homo  (gesith)  and  cyrliscus  homo  (ceorl),  and 
the  former  class  constituted  a  fully  established  nobility, 
who  were  such  by  virtue  of  their  service  to  the  King.1 

It  was  upon  the  existence  of  this  distinction  that 
Alfred,  if  Alfred  it  was,  founded  that  extension  of  the 
thegnhood  which  firmly  laid  the  foundations  not  only 
of  a  national  army  but  of  a  national  aristocracy  as 
well.  The  ceorl  who  "  throve  so  that  he  had  fully  five 
hides  of  land,  and  a  helm  and  mail  shirt,  and  a  sword 
ornamented  with  gold,"  and  some  other  specified  quali- 
fications, was  "  thegn-right  worthy  "  or  "  gesithcund." 
The  merchant,  too,  the  city-dweller,  "  who  has  fared 
three  times  over  the  high  seas  at  his  own  expense  "  is 
also  entitled  to  promotion.2  Such  an  extension  of  the 
nobility  by  the  recognition  of  a  claim  to  admission  to 
its  ranks  on  the  part  of  considerable  numbers  of  the 
more  respectable  and  intelligent  of  the  commons  would 


Servants.  For  the  whole  question  see  pp.  163  sqq.  of  Maitland,  who 
says  that  "  this  institution  has  undergone  many  changes  in  the  course 
of  a  long  history."  While  avoiding  dogmatism,  we  can  safely  quote 
the  thegnhood  as  an  illustration  of  the  general  principle  propounded 
in  the  text;  in  it  we  see  an  example  of  the  process  by  which  institu- 
tions arising  from  a  specific  social  need  are  adapted  to  meet  other 
social  needs  created  by  the  evolving  organism  of  society.  This 
account  of  the  matter  is  quite  clear  from  Maitland's  description  of  the 
changes  traceable  in  the  evolution  of  the  thegnhood.  "  The  King's 
thegns  are  his  free  servants — servants,  but  also  companions.  Then 
the  King — and  other  great  lords  follow  his  example — begins  to  give 
lands  to  his  thegns,  and  thus  the  nature  of  the  thegnship  is  modified. 
The  thegn  no  longer  lives  in  his  lord's  Court ;  he  is  a  warrior  endowed 
with  land.  Then  the  thegnship  becomes  more  than  a  relationship, 
it  becomes  a  status. — This  status  seems  to  be  hereditary  "  (p.  163). 
Personal  attendant  in  peace  or  war;  landed  proprietor;  hereditary 
aristocrat — these  are  the  broad  steps  of  the  process. 

1  Oman,  pp.  354-62. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.   470-1.      Maitland  :     "  The  ceorl  obtains  the  thegnly 
wergild  if  he  has  an  estate  rated  for  military  purposes  at  five  hides. 
Another  version  of  this  tradition  requires  of  the  ceorl  '  who  thrives 
to  thegn-right '  five  hides  of  his  own  land,  a  church,  a  kitchen,  a  house 
in  the  burh,  a  special*  office  in  the  King's  hall.     To  be  '  worthy  of 
thegn-right '  may  be  one  thing,  to  be  a  thegn  another  "  (p.  164). 

L  145 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

aid  to  consolidate  national  feeling  by  focussing  the 
personal  attention  of  a  constantly  increasing  number 
of  his  subjects  upon  the  King  as  the  symbol  of  national 
unity.  As  the  new  thegns  would  naturally  be  men  of 
influence  in  their  own  neighbourhoods,  both  from  their 
personal  character  and  the  number  of  their  dependents, 
we  can  see  in  this  creation  of  an  aristocracy  a  con- 
solidation of  national  feeling,  not  only  among  the  thegns 
themselves,  but  also  among  the  proletariat  over  whom 
they  had  legal  or  personal  power.  A  similar  influence 
was  exercised  by  the  large  body  of  clergy  following 
upon  the  conversion  of  the  English  to  Christianity ;  but, 
as  the  work  of  the  Church  in  creating  and  fostering 
national  sentiment  was  less  political  in  the  narrower 
sense  than  social  in  the  wider  sense,  we  shall  deal  with 
her  contribution  to  national  unity  when  touching  upon 
the  causes  which  operated  to  bring  about  the  social 
unity  of  the  nation. 

So  far,  however,  we  can  clearly  see  that  the  process 
of  national  development  was  a  process  which  involved 
the  commingling  of  previously  separate  environments, 
whether  under  influences  operating  within  the  national 
sphere  or  influences  operating  upon  the  national  sphere 
from  without.  We  see  how  a  traditional  environment 
is  modified  by  the  admission  of  elements  from  the 
outside,  and  how  the  new  elements  combine  with  the 
original  tradition  to  form  a  new  environment,  which  is 
handed  down  to  the  next  generation  to  be  adapted  and 
modified  by  a  similar  process.  Institutions  and  charac- 
teristics are  not  modified  by  the  immission  of  new  blood 
into  the  bodies  of  the  people  who  possess  them,  but  by 
the  admission  of  new  influences  which  operate  from  out- 
side upon  the  minds  and  bodies  of  the  people,  t  Peoples 
of  allied  racial  origin  who  indulge  in  fratricidal  conflict  no 
more  than  peoples  of  different  racial  origin  who  indulge 
in  intertribal  conflict  can  resist  the  amalgamating  power 
of  a  common  political  environment,  common  political 
necessities  and  common  political  ambitions. 

This  conclusion  is  still  more  firmly  established  when 
we  turn  from  the  political  to  the  social  history  of  our 
Anglo-Saxon  predecessors.  We  are  still,  even  in  the 
twentieth  century,  apparently  a  long  way  off  from  the 
identification  of  the  social  and  political  spheres  of  our 

146 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

national  life.  We  have  not  yet  solved  the  problem  of 
how  to  make  our  political  institutions  an  adequate 
expression  of  our  social  needs,  although  step  by  step 
and  precedent  by  precedent  we  still  continue  our 
ancient  tradition  of  making  the  bounds  of  freedom 
wider  yet,  broadening  our  polity  to  include  ever  more 
numerous  social  groups,  and  interfusing  its  adminis- 
tration with  a  finer  spirit  of  social  justice.  But  in 
England  before  the  Conquest,  and  for  a  long  time  after 
it,  the  fusion  was  little  advanced,  and,  although  there 
are  certain  aspects  of  national  life  which  exhibit  the  two 
forces  in  sympathetic  contact,  yet,  speaking  in  a  general 
sense,  we  should  only  court  inextricable  confusion  by 
trying  to  describe  them  in  the  same  story.  Happily, 
the  final  result  of  social  progress,  as  of  political  progress, 
was  a  well-marked  approach  towards  national  unity,  and 
we  hope  to  indicate  that  in  the  social,  as  in  the  political 
sphere,  the  result  was  not  due  to  the  commingling  of 
separate  racial  elements  in  our  blood,  but  to  the  com- 
mingling of  separate  atmospheres  to  form  the  general 
national  environment. 

After  the  warrior  bands  who  made  Romanized  England 
their  prey  had  conquered  and  devastated  enough  to 
make  their  footing  sure,  we  find  them  settling  down 
into  innumerable  separate  social  units  of  the  same  type 
as  those  described  for  us  in  the  pages  of  the  "  Germany  " 
of  Tacitus.  "  All  over  England,"  as  Kemble  says, 
"  there  soon  existed  a  network  of  communities,  the 
principle  of  whose  being  was  separation,,  as  regarded 
each  other;  the  most  intimate  union,  as  regarded  the 
individual  members  of  each.  Agricultural,  not  com- 
mercial, dispersed,  not  centralized,  content  within  their 
own  limits  and  little  given  to  wandering,  they  relin- 
quished in  a  great  degree  the  habits  and  feelings  which 
had  united  them  as  military  adventurers;  and  the 
spirit  which  had  achieved  the  conquest  of  an  empire 
was  now  satisfied  with  the  care  of  maintaining  inviolate 
a  little  peaceful  plot,  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of  a 
few  simple  households."  1  Whatever  view  we  may  adopt 
of  the  origin  of  these  "  village  communities  " — whether 
we  agree  with  Sir  Henry  Maine  that  they  are  an  Aryan 

1  The  Saxons   in   England'  by   John   Mitchell   Kemble    (Bernard 
Quaritch,  1876),  Vol.  I.  pp.  70-1.     Cf.  pp.  56-7. 

147 


institution;  with  Mr.  Hewitt  that  as  regards  India, 
South-western  Asia  and  South-eastern  Europe  they  were 
"  fully  developed  before  the  Aryan  race  had  started 
from  North-western  Europe  " ;  with  Mr.  Seebohm  that 
they  are  the  gift  of  Roman  civilization  to  Britain;  or 
with  Sir  Laurence  Gomme  that  they  are  an  almost 
universal  institution  of  a  primeval  type  1 — there  can,  at 
any  rate,  be  no  doubt  that  Anglo-Saxon  social  life  was 
originally  centred  in  the  security  of  their  existence. 
The  type  of  the  English  village  community  is  clearly 
defined  in  all  the  authors  who  have  variously  explained 
its  original  formation.  We  recall  how  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  Tacitus  the  warriors  fought  in  clans,  and,  quite 
in  harmony  with  this  military  practice,  the  agricultural 
settlement,  in  theory  at  least,  consisted  of  a  group  of 
ceorls  descended  from  common  ancestors,  or  from  the 
hero  of  the  particular  tribe.  Even  from  the  point  of 
view  which  regards  the  progress  of  civilization  as 
dependent  upon  tradition  and  not  upon  race,  the 
kinship  of  the  members  of  the  community  cannot  be 
regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  potent  element  in  estab- 
lishing and  confirming  the  communal  environment. 
That  it  is  not  actually  race  itself  which  operates  in 
forming  and  consolidating  the  communal  institutions 
and  character  is  proved  by  the  fact  that,  even  where 
the  family  relationship  is  not  real  but  imaginary,  the 
imagination  has  all  the  effect  which  follows  from  the 
reality.  It  is  a  perfectly  unnecessary  and  unstable 
hypothesis  that,  where  all  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity have  been  nourished  on  the  same  tradition,  a 
greater  or  less  degree  of  communal  sentiment  would 
follow  upon  a  closer  or  more  distant  relationship  to  the 
original  founder  of  the  tribe.  Just  as  most  of  us  to-day 
know  some  Frenchman  or  Italian  who,  matured  in 
English  surroundings,  is  more  English  than  the  English 
in  his  patriotic  sympathies,  so  we  easily  admit  that  a 
Billing  adopted  into  a  Harling  tribe  would  soon  take 
a  sympathetic  interest  in  life  from  the  point  of  view  of 

1  The  Ruling  Eaces  of  Prehistoric  Times  in  India,  South- Western 
Asia  and  Southern  Europe,  by'J.  F.  Hewitt  (Constable,  1894),  Essay  III. ; 
The  English  Village  Community,  by  Frederic  Seebohm  (Longmans,  1883) ; 
The  Village  Community,  by  George  Laurence  Gomme  (W.  Scott,  1890). 

148 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

the  Harlings.1  It  is  certainly  difficult  to  imagine  that 
any  of  the  separate  communities  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
found  themselves  entirely  of  unmixed  descent  after  the 
rough  and  tumble  of  two  centuries  of  warfare,  with  its 
alliances  born  of  military  requirements  and  its  necessary 
recruiting  of  depleted  clans  from  any  source  that  accident 
provided.  Marriage,  adoption,  emancipation,  would  all 
operate  to  extend  the  numbers  of  the  clan  and  to  bind 
the  new  entrants  with  the  bond  of  the  already  existing 
communal  traditions  and  practices.  The  interesting 
account  which  Sir  Laurence  Gomme  has  given  of  the 
survival  of  clan  feuds  in  England,  as,  for  example,  at 
Scarborough,  Ludlow,  and  Derby — the  Shrove  Tuesday 
melee  on  the  South  Sands  at  Scarborough,  the  tug-of- 
war  at  Ludlow,  the  "  football  match  "  at  Derby — lead 
him  to  the  conclusion  that  "  we  have  in  these  modern 
games  the  surviving  relics  of  the  earliest  conditions  of 
village  life  and  organization,  when  different  clans  settled 
down  side  by  side,  but  always  with  the  recollection  of 
their  tribal  distinctions."  2  So  early  in  our  history  do 
we  perceive  that  the  progress  of  civilization  is  dependent 
upon  the  intermingling  of  different  communal  traditions. 
The  evidence  which  Sir  Laurence  has  collected  elsewhere 
pointing  to  the  existence  of  Celtic  elements  (not  to  speak 
of  Danish)  in  the  English  village  community  serves  to 
corroborate  this  view,  and  to  suggest,  what  is  rendered 
highly  probable  from  other  sources,  that  the  environ- 
ment of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  not  so  little  affected  by 
the  pre-existing  Celtic  environment  as  is  frequently 
maintained  by  learned  historians,  whose  opinions,  how- 
ever, are  losing  their  weight  as  modern  investigators 
accumulate  evidence  pointing  in  a  contrary  direction. 
Leaving  aside  the  as  yet  unsettled  question  whether 
the  lacts  in  the  Kentish  King  Ethelberht's  classification 
of  his  subjects  into  earls,  ceorls  and  laets  were  Celtic 

1  The  Making  of  an  Englishman,  by  W.  L.  George  (Constable  &  Co., 
1914),  is  a  brilliant  and  effective  exposition  of  the  process.     "  I  have 
lost  the  feeling  of  Trafalgar,  lost  the  feeling  of  Waterloo,  lost  them 
so  completely  that  like  a  born  Londoner  I  have  forgotten  the  blood 
and  smoke  that  soil  those  rich  names,  and  that  they  awaken  in  my 
mind  no  idea  save  '  open  space  '  and  '  railway  station  '  "  (p.  6);    It  is 
a  "  Frenchman  "  who  says  this. 

2  The  Village  Community,  pp.  241-2. 

149 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

or  English,  we  can  quote  the  laws  of  the  West  Saxon 
King  Ine  as  incontestably  proving  that  "  the  royal 
following  included  men  of  Celtic  blood,  as  well  as 
English  gesithcund  men,"  and  that  "  Wessex  was  full 
of  great  landowners  holding  ten  or  twenty  hides  from 
the  King,  and  working  these  hides  by  the  labour  of 
peasant  families,  English  or  Welsh,  who  paid  them  rent 
and  service."  *  Some  of  the  early  charters  of  the 
English  kings  bear  Welsh  names  among  their  signa- 
tories, and  the  intermarriage  of  Welsh  and  English 
princes  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  occurrence.  It 
seems  difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  final 
termination  of  hostilities  between  British  and  English 
left  considerable  numbers  of  the  former  peacefully 
settled  among  the  latter,  and  adding  the  influence  of 
their  ancient  tradition  to  the  social  and  educational 
environment  of  their  conquerors.  This  conclusion  fur- 
nishes the  most  natural  explanation,  not  only  of  the 
survival  of  the  Celtic  elements  in  the  English  village 
communities,  but  also  for  the  persistence,  especially  in 
districts  little  affected  by  the  influence  of  modern  cul- 
ture and  civilization,  of  those  primeval  elements  in  our 
folklore  which  are  admittedly  not  of  English  origin. 
Even  if  we  were  compelled  to  limit  our  conclusions  to 
those  based  upon  evidence  of  the  concubinage  of  the 
Welsh  women  with  Englishmen — a  necessarily  frequent 
and  notorious  occurrence  with  men  who  paid  so  high 
a  regard  to  the  chastity  of  their  own  women  as  the 
Anglo-Saxons — we  should  still  be  obliged  to  maintain 
that  through  this  irregular  channel  much  of  the  Celtic 
tradition  must  find  its  way  into  English  circles,  because, 
although  an  established  tradition  is  best  protected  by 
the  sacred  bulwarks  of  the  lawful  family,  we  cannot 
suppose  that  the  children  of  Welsh  mothers  learnt 
nothing  from  their  teaching.2 

1  Oman,  pp.  363-4. 

2  "  If ,  as  Professor  Rolleston  supposes,  the  skulls  teach  that  whole- 
sale importations  of  Saxon  women  were  unfrequent,  we  may  safely 
infer  considerable  intermarriage  between  Teuton  and  Celt  "  (Johnson's 
Folk-Memory,  p.  94).     On  the  previous  page  he  quotes  Frederick  York 
Powell :   "  It  is  probable  that  the  thegen  and  geneat  (squire  and  yeoman) 
and  village  tradesmen,  save,  perhaps,  the  smith,  were  mostly  of  English 
blood,  with  such  mixture  as  marriage  or  concubinage  with  the  British 

150 


RACE  A^D  NATIONALITY 

Already,  then,  almost  at  the  commencement  of  the 
history  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  we  have  evidence  of  that 
commingling  of  traditions  which  dissolves  the  barriers 
of  race,  and  endows  a  settlement  composed  of  various 
elements  with  that  community  of  interest  out  of  which 
the  communal  conscience  springs.  This  community  of 
interest  was  further  strengthened  and  consolidated  by 
the  effective  force  of  common  local  associations.  The 
village  community,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  self-centred 
institution,  "  possessing  in  itself  its  own  desire."  It 
settled  itself  down,  as  in  the  days  described  by  Tacitus, 
around  some  spring  or  plain,  or  near  some  grove,  and 
there  re-established  its  primeval  system  of  "  open  field  " 
cultivation.  Shunning  at  first  the  contact  of  towns, 
disregarding  the  value  of  the  Roman  roads  as  means 
of  intercommunication,  the  maegth,  or  kindred,  pro- 
ceeded to  divide  its  land  among  the  free  householders, 
who  thus  found  their  only  peaceful  means  of  support 
in  agricultural  and  pastoral  occupations.  The  large 
open  fields  for  ploughing  were  each  divided  into  many 
narrow  strips;  each  family  possessed  normally  a  strip 
in  this  field,  a  strip  in  that,  and  perhaps  several  strips 
elsewhere.  In  summer  the  meadowland  was  also  appor- 
tioned into  lots,  but  in  winter  it  reverted  to  the  state 
of  common  land.  Beyond  the  agricultural  and  pastoral 
limits  of  the  settlement  was  the  forest,  which  furnished 
fuel  to  the  community  at  large,  with  mast  for  the 
swine  and  some  rough  grazing  for  the  cattle.  Wheat, 
barley  and  oats  then,  as  now,  were  the  main  agricultural 
products;  alternative  crops  followed  each  other  in  two 
successive  years,  and  in  the  third  the  land  lay  fallow. 

We  are  without  details  as  to  the  first  establishment 
of  these  little  settlements  in  the  conquered  British 
country;  but  it  is  natural  to  believe  that  the  state  of 
warfare  during  which  they  originated  would  fix  the 
tenure  upon  which  they  were  held.  We  have  already 
seen  how,  on  the  political  side,  the  nobility,  whether  of 

women  caused;  the  other  classes,  over  most  of  the  island,  were 
probably  largely  of  Celtic  or  pre-Celtic  blood."  Freeman  also  had  to 
admit  that  the  majority  of  British  women  would  be  spared  to  become 
the  wives  or  concubines  of  the  invaders  (Norman  Conquest,  Chap.  I). 
Dr.  Hodgkin  prefers  "  Anglo-Celt "  to  Anglo-Saxon  "  as  the  fitting 
designation  of  our  race." 

151 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

birth  or  service,  were  connected  with  the  King  by  a 
system  of  association  based  upon  the  grant  of  lands  as 
p.  condition  of  military  or  personal  attendance,  and 
that  the  nobility  in  their  turn  apportioned  their  holdings 
among  the  free  ceorls  upon  similar  conditions.  Already 
in  the  seventh  century  Wessex  is  divided  into  estates 
• — consisting  of  hams  or  tuns — which  in  all  essential 
features  anticipate  the  Norman  manor,  which  was,  of 
course,  a  village  community  farming  an  estate  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  lord.  The  maegth  was,  therefore, 
not  only  welded  together  by  a  theoretically  common 
relationship,  but  also  by  the  social  prominence  of  the 
noble  landowner  to  whom  its  members  owed  service  of 
field  labour  or  personal  attendance. 

In  this  self-centred  settlement,  then,  we  have  the 
social  unit  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  community,  with  its 
own  courts  of  justice,  its  own  arrangements  for  pro- 
tection and  defence,  its  own  social  institutions  and 
necessarily  its  own  keen  local  patriotism.  Whatever 
larger  agglomerations  the  village  communities  may  have 
formed  in  combination  with  other  communities ;  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  relationships  to  the  shire,  the 
province  and  the  kingdom;  these  were  more  or  less 
political  in  their  nature,  and  it  is  to  processes  operating 
within  the  village  community  itself  that  we  must  look 
for  the  social  development  of  the  English  people  out  of 
clannishness  and  particularism  into  nationality  ancf 
Imperial  patriotism.  Even  nowadays,  when  every 
Englishman  is  born  into  a  society  receiving  influences 
from  sources  not  only  national  but  international  in 
their  bearing,  we  find  that  national  patriotism  frequently 
has  its  basis  in  love  of  the  particular  piece  of  land  with 
which  the  youthful  eye  and  mind  were  first  familiarized. 
The  process  by  which  local  sentiment  is  merged  in 
national  consciousness  is  now  consummated  in  the  youth 
and  early  manhood  of  the  individual  citizen;  it  was 
the  same  process  which  occupied  many  centuries  in  the 
development  of  our  national  history.  Just  as  a  great 
Imperial  statesman's  protective  care  of  his  country's 
destinies  is  coloured  by  the  tender  memory  of  some 
retired  and  long-unvisited  spot  on  the  bleak  wolds  of 
Yorkshire,  or  in  the  wild  valleys  of  Wales,  so  the  growth 

152 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  Anglo-Saxon  patriotism  had  its  roots  in  that  devotion 
which  every  human  heart  pays  abundantly  to  the  religio 
loci.1  Every  member  of  the  village  community  almost 
of  necessity  formed  personal  relationships  with  every 
foot  of  the  communal  holding.  He  knew  it  all,  "  from 
the  otter-hole  to  the  ford;  from  the  ford  to  Wotan's 
ridge;  then  up  along  the  arable  land  to  the  old  dyke; 
along  the  dyke  to  the  staple;  from  the  staple  upward 
to  Attendene;  from  the  dene  towards  the  Avon  to  the 
great  bank;  then  to  the  death-pool;  from  the  death- 
pool  to  the  broad  army  road;  then  along  the  narrow 
way  towards  the  arable  land ;  then  to  the  great  thorough- 
fare to  the  chalk-pit ;  from  the  pit  along  the  dyke  by 
the  elder-stump ;  from  the  stump  to  the  (river)  Wily." 
In  legal  documents  the  boundaries  are  mostly  denned 
by  these  minute  details;  and  frequently  there  are  asso- 
ciated with  these  local  descriptions  personal  names,  some 
of  them  mythological,  as  in  the  case  of  Wotan  above, 
some  of  them  belonging  to  local  personages  who  had 
contributed  a  special  share  to  the  growing  tradition  of 
the  community. 

These  familiar  local  associations,  appealing  to  all  the 
community,  helped  as  much  to  weld  them  into  one  body 
as  the  common  lord,  the  common  institutions  and  the 
ceremonies  of  the  common  worship.  Dr.  Hearn  has 
remarked  of  the  Aryan  settlement  in  general :  "  It  was 
not  the  tie  of  blood,  or  of  family  habit,  or  of  superior 
physical  force,  that  held  men  together,  but  the  far  more 
potent  bond  of  a  common  worship," 3  and  in  the 
Teutonic  settlement  the  worship  itself  is  largely  bound 
up  with  territorial  associations.  It  is  upon  the  evidence 
of  local  names — names  yet  existent  in  England  under 
more  or  less  varied  forms — that  we  are  largely  dependent 

1  This  is  an  element  perhaps  more  conspicuous  in  French  patriotism 
than  in  British.     Lord  Esher  has  emphasized  the  young  Frenchman's 
"  passion  for  France,  her  sacred  soil,  and  her  sunshine  that  ripens 
the  vineyards  and  beats  upon  her  wide  fields  and  forests  "  (Letter  to 
Morning  Post,  Oct.  7,  1918).     But  the  sentiment  is  not  absent  in  the 
young  (or  the  old)  Englishman  either. 

2  The  Arts  in  Early  England,  by  G.  Baldwin  Brown,  M.A.  (John 
Murray,  1903),  pp.  87-8. 

3  See  Gomme,   p.    129,   quoting  from  Hearn's   Aryan  Household  : 
"  Those  who  worshipped  the  same  gods  were  relatives." 

153 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

for  our  knowledge  of  the  broad  features  of  Scandinavian 
Paganism  as  it  existed  here  after  the  Invasion.  That 
the  cult  of  Thor  was  established  throughout  the  Island 
is  demonstrated  by  the  number  of  names  of  places 
compounded  with  his  name ;  but  it  is  quite  in  harmony 
with  all  we  know  of  the  cults  of  the  Aryan  peoples  that 
the  gods  worshipped  by  the  village  were  regarded  as 
the  gods  of  the  village,  and  not  the  gods  of  the  people 
as  a  whole.  The  Grendels  and  Nicors — the  spirits  of  the 
wood  and  the  mere — had  their  grim  habitations  in 
the  neighbouring  marsh  and  in  the  forest  that  enfolded 
the  settlement  in  its  gloomy  embrace.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  religion  of  our  Pagan  ancestors  which 
inculcated  the  spirit  of  cosmopolitanism  or  the  habit 
of  universal  sympathy.  That  task  was  the  special 
prerogative  of  Christianity;  and  it  was  in  the  con- 
version of  the  people  to  that  faith  that  we  must  place 
the  first  great  expansion  in  the  narrow  boundaries  of 
the  isolated  village  settlement.  As  Kemble  has  said, 
"  the  religio  loci  cannot  be  transported,"  1  and  it  was, 
therefore,  only  in  a  religion  which  was  based  upon  prin- 
ciples and  sentiments  which  transcended  all  local 
limitations  that  we  can  look  for  the  main  inspiration  of 
a  process  which  expanded  local  particularism  into  the 
more  generous  emotion  of  national  patriotism. 

Certain  it  is,  at  any  rate,  that  the  establishment  of 
Christianity  in  England  profoundly  modified  the  whole 
character  of  the  communal  life.  The  wandering  monks 
and  episcopal  missionaries  who  traversed  every  district 
of  the  country  brought  with  them,  apart  from  their 
definite  teaching,  associations  of  the  outside  world 
which,  intermingling  with  the  ancient  village  tradition, 
endowed  it  with  a  larger  outlook  and  a  broader  sym- 
pathy. That  elements  of  the  old  faith  survived  in  the 
reign  of  the  new,  not  only  in  the  legends  and  super- 
stitions which  still  linger  on  in  the  countryside,  but  also 
as  an  integral  part  of  the  national  faith,  is  not  a  matter 
of  any  doubt.  After  the  advent  of  Christianity,  "  the 
Anglosaxon  united  the  realm  of  Hel  with  Nastrond  to 
complete  a  hideous  prison  for  the  guilty.  The  prevailing 
idea  in  the  infernal  regions  of  the  Teuton  is  cold  and 
1  Kemble,  Vol.  I.  p.  441. 
154 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

gloom  ;  the  poisonous  snakes,  which  waking  or  sleeping 
seem  ever  to  have  haunted  the  Anglosaxon,  formed  a 
•  convenient  point  of  junction  between  his  own  traditional 
Hell  and  that  which  he  heard  of  from  the  pulpit  in 
quotations  from  the  works  of  the  Fathers ;  and  to  these 
and  their  influence  alone  can  it  be  attributed  when  we 
find  flames  and  sulphur,  and  all  the  hideous  apparatus 
of  Judaic  tradition,  adopted  by  him."  1  But  it  was 
not  modification  of  this  kind  alone  that  the  ancient 
traditions  underwent.  The  brotherhood  of  man  was 
never  taught  with  so  much  enthusiasm  as  by  these 
Christian  missionaries  to  the  Northern  Pagans ;  and  the 
calmer  virtues  of  the  Christian  life  displaced  in  practice 
as  well  as  in  theory  the  old  Pagan  warrior  qualities 
already  weakened  by  long  cessation  from  military  adven- 
tures. Again,  it  was  no  change  of  race,  but  a  modifica- 
tion of  environment,  which  effected  a  change  in  the 
character  of  the  Pagan  Anglo-Saxon.  Even  in  the 
matter  of  slavery,  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  though 
halting  and  inconsistent,  was  not  without  unmistakable 
effect.  The  establishment  of  monasteries  and  their 
employment  of  numerous  artizans  brought  the  village 
populations  into  contact  with  men  tinged  with  Conti- 
nental associations;  while  the  foundation  of  village 
churches,  which  became  the  centres  of  the  social  as 
well  as  the  religious  life  of  the  community,  expanded 
their  interest  in  the  direction  of  foreign  arts  and  crafts 
of  various  descriptions.  The  curtains  of  Oriental 
tapestry  which  protected  the  worshipper  from  the  wind 
that  whistled  through  the  sacred  walls  were  imitated 
by  the  busy'labour  of  local  dames  and  their  maidens; 
and  art,  stimulated  by  religious  devotion,  found  a  more 
energetic  expression  in  secular  and  social  activities. 
The  village  community,  falling  ever  more  and  more 
effectively  under  the  influence  of  the  clergy  in  its  midst, 
was  not  allowed  to  forget  that  it  was  an  isolated  settle- 
ment no  longer,  but  a  living  part  of  that  ecclesiastical 
polity  which  was  the  organized  expression  of  the  religious 
life  of  the  nation. 

The  Church,  therefore,  while  profoundly  modifying 
the  local  life  of  the  community  considered  in  itself, 
1  Kemble,  Vol.  I.  pp.  393^. 
155 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

exercised  an  important  influence  in  building  up  that 
sense  of  corporate  unity  upon  which  national  life  and 
national  consciousness  are  founded. 

If,  leaving  the  narrow  limits  of  the  once  self-centred 
village  life,  we  turn  to  the  broader  problem  of  national 
existence  as  a  whole,  we  find  the  Church  exercising  a 
dominant  influence  in  two  different  but  allied  directions. 
Christianity  brought  the  country  into  the  sphere  of 
international  comity  by  making  her  a  member  of  that 
great  community  of  peoples  who  owned  the  spiritual 
sway  of  Rome.  While  this  laid  her  open  to  many 
foreign  contacts  which  broadened  her  interests  and 
enriched  her  environment,  it  also  served  to  emphasize 
her  position  as  a  national  unit  among  other  national 
units  in  the  terrestrial  civitas  Dei  which  it  was  the 
honourable  ambition  of  Rome  to  make  coterminous 
with  the  inhabited  globe. 

But  the  most  important  influence  which  the  Church 
in  England  had  in  developing  the  sense  of  national 
unity  was  due  to  the  fact  that  from  the  outset  she  had 
the  character,  which  she  never  wholly  lost,  of  being, 
not  the  Church  in  England,  but  the  Church  of  England. 
Thanks  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  English  did  not 
receive  their  ecclesiastical  organization  at  the  hands  of 
the  Romanized  Celtic  Church  of  Britain  and  Ireland, 
and  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  invaders  of  England 
escaped  the  Romanizing  influences  to  which  their 
Teutonic  brethren  had  succumbed  on  the  European 
continent,  the  Church  of  England  secured  and  maintained 
a  position  of  national  independence  which  was  never 
enjoyed  by  the  Churches  of  Gaul  or  the  Empire.  The 
great  Pope  Gregory  warned  his  bishops  not  to  impose 
upon  the  new  English  Church  the  fetters  o^  a  cut-and- 
dried  ecclesiastical  system,  whether  of  administration 
or  dogma.1  Although  the  Italian  Hadrian  and  the 
Greek  Theodore  ruled  in  their  day  at  Canterbury,  yet 
the  highest  spiritual  dignities  were  mainly  held  by 
Englishmen  like  Aldhelm,  Alcuin,  Cuthbert  and  Wilfrith ; 
while  the  bulk  of  the  inferior  clergy  were  English  who 
had  little  Latin,  and  were  quite  content  to  take  their 

1  "Conversion  of  the  West."     The  English,   by  the  Rev.   G.   F. 
Maclear,  D.D.  (London :  S.P.C.K.),  Chaps.  III.  and  XIII. 

156 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

spiritual  laws  from  their  temporal  king.  Lectures,  ritual, 
prayers  and  sermons  were  early  embodied  in  the  English 
tongue,  which  was  made  the  vehicle  of  a  continual  series 
of  more  or  less  edifying  homilies  familiarizing  clergy  and 
laity  alike  with  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  Mass  itself 
was  never  read  wholly  in  Latin ;  and  the  Wedding 
Service  used  in  our  churches  to-day  preserves  some- 
thing of  the  sound  and  substance  of  the  early  Anglo- 
Saxon  form.  The  Roman  celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  a 
custom  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  in  the 
observance  so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  where 
even  the  normal  restrictions  as  regards  marriage  had 
to  be  modified  by  Papal  indulgence  to  national  freedom. 
The  perseverance  of  the  Teutonic  tradition  of  inebriety, 
which  we  saw  established  in  the  days  of  Tacitus  and 
perpetuated  in  those  of  Beowulf,  was  evidenced  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  clergy  by  the  frequency  of  the  prohibitions 
issued  to  cope  with  it. 

This  tendency  to  social  unity,  largely  strengthened  by 
the  ministrations  of  the  Christian  clergy,  was  equally 
effectual  in  the  spheres  of  law  and  politics.  It  is  wrong 
to  say,  with  our  brilliant  historian  Green,  that  at  the  end 
of  the  seventh  century  national  unity  rested  on  no  basis 
but  the  sword;  but  he  is  justly  entitled  to  say  that 
the  work  of  the  Greek  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Theo- 
dore (A.D.  669-690),  in  giving  the  national  Church  that 
form  which  it  has  to-day,  "clothed"  that  unity  "with 
a  sacred  form  and  surrounded  it  with  divine  sanctions." 
;'  The  single  throne  of  the  one  primate  at  Canterbury 
accustomed  men's  minds  to  the  thought  of  a  single 
throne  for  their  one  temporal  overlord  at  York,  or,  as 
in  later  days,  at  Lichfield  or  at  Winchester.  The 
regular  subordination  of  priest  to  bishop,  of  bishop  to 
primate,  in  the  administration  of  the  Church,  supplied 
a  mould  on  which  the  civil  organization  of  the  State 
quietly  shaped  itself."  "  Above  all,  the  councils 
gathered  by  Theodore  were  the  first  of  all  national 
gatherings  for  general  legislation.  It  was  at  a  much 
later  time  that  the  Wise  Men  of  Wessex  or  Northumbria 
or  Mercia  learned  to  come  together  in  the  Witenagemot 
of  all  England.  It  was  the  ecclesiastical  synods  which 
by  this  example  led  the  way  to  our  national  Parliament, 

157 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

as  it  was  the  canons  enacted  in  such  synods  which  led 
the  way  to  a  national  system  of  law."  x 

The  work  of  the  Church,  therefore,  cannot  be  too 
highly  esteemed,  both  in  its  permeation  of  the  old 
tradition  with  newer  influences  from  external  sources  and 
in  consolidating  the  combined  result  against  the  inrush  of 
further  foreign  influences  of  too  universal  a  character. 

But  great  as  the  work  of  the  Church  was,  it  was  not 
the  only  influence  operating  to  the  introduction  of  new 
contacts  into  the  national  environment.  The  growth 
of  the  towns,  with  their  admittedly  freer  intercourse  of 
Celt  and  Teuton  and  foreigner ;  the  secular  relationships 
of  trade  and  commerce;  the  profane  experiences 
undergone  by  the  numerous  pilgrims  who  wandered 
Romewards;  the  inter-relationships  of  the  Courts  of 
England  with  those  of  the  Empire,  France  and  Lom- 
bardy ;  the  Danish  Monarchy,  with  its  final  amalgama- 
tion of  the  two  peoples  allied  in  their  origin  and  their 
ancient  traditions — all  these  operated  in  the  direction 
of  producing  a  combined  nationality  which,  although 
strongly  felt,  was  not  sufficiently  coherent  or  powerful 
to  resist  the  military  attack  of  the  Normans,  with  their 
crowd  of  newer  and  more  energetic  influences.  The 
Norman  Conquest,  which  unsettled  the  English  tradition, 
did  not  overwhelm  it,  and  the  history  of  England  after 
that  event  is  but  a  repetition  of  the  old  story  of  the 
absorption  of  the  newer  elements  into  the  older  society, 
and  the  eventual  combination  of  the  two  in  a  greatly 
altered  but  more  enduring  forni.  It  is  the  old  story, 
indeed — the  story  of  the  impotence  of  race  as  a  factor 
in  human  development,  and  the  omnipotence  of  environ- 
ment in  welding  different  races  into  social  and  political 
harmony.  These  lessons  are  clear  from  our  brief  resume 
of  Anglo-Saxon  history,  and  the  repetition  of  the  same 
processes  in  the  succeeding  stages  of  our  history  has 
eventually  resulted  in  welding  all  the  variegated  new 
interests  that  have  poured  into  us  from  time  to  time 
into  that  community  of  interest,  and  that  community 
of  national  character  born  of  common  interest,  which 
are  the  marks  of  British  nationality  as  it  exists  to-day. 

1  Green,  Short  History,  under  "  Theodore,  669-690." 
158 


CHAPTER  X 

English  Nationality  and  the  Norman  Conquest — The  Results  of  the 
Conquest  not  due  to  the  Operation  of  "racial"  Factors,  but  to  the 
Commingling  of  different  Traditions — The  Principle  of  Centraliza- 
tion and  the  Principle  of  Disruption  in  the  Feudal  System  as  learnt 
by  the  Normans  in  France — Triumph  of  the  Principle  of  Centraliza- 
tion in  the  Consolidation  of  (1)  Monarchy,  (2)  Law,  (3)  Parliament, 
and  in  the  Substitution  of  symbolic  Monarchy  for  personal  Mon- 
archy— The  Principle  of  Nationality  victorious  over  the  Principle 
of  Cosmopolitanism  inherent  in  the  Papal  Conception  6f  a  universal 
spiritual  Empire — Spread  of  British  Nationality  to  Wales,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  the  Colonies  and  the  Dependencies — The  British  Empire. 

So  profound,  so  dominating,  and  so  vital  is  the  sense 
of  nationality  at  the  present  day  that  it  is  difficult  to 
recognize  that  it  is  not  a  fundamental-  and  primitive 
instinct  of  human  nature,  but  a  habit  of  slow  growth 
whose  development  is  subject  to  a  thousand  influences 
which  may  thwart  it,  deflect  it,  annihilate  it,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  may  foster  it,  direct  it,  bring  it  to  the  fruition 
of  a  sacred  patriotism.  Just  as  in  the  individual  citizen 
patriotism,  like  other  virtues,  has  to  be  taught  by  the 
forces  of  education  and  social  environment,  so  a  group 
of  peoples,  a  collection  of  communities,  a  juxtaposition 
of  "  races,"  are  consolidated,  by  the  driving  impulsion  of 
circumstances  and  of  the  lessons  learnt  from  them,  into 
a  homogeneous  association  which  presents  a  united  front 
to  all  external  forces  whatsoever,  whether  hostile  or 
benevolent.  The  consciousness  of  nationality  is  not  a 
fatal  and  ineluctable  result  of  powers  and  tendencies 
inherent  either  in  the  human  race  as  a  whole  or  in  any 
section  of  it.  Always  its  formation  depends  on  circum- 
stances, and  when,  in  any  particular,  example,  we  are  able 
to  watch  the  historical  rise  of  the  national  spirit  and  its 
creation  of  a  national  organization,  it  is  with  an  emotion 
of  constant  wonder  that  we  find  harmony  and  order 
gradually  winning  the  day  over  particularist  and  disrupt- 
ive tendencies  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  over 

159 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

that  universalism  which  would  endeavour  to  bind  men 
together  as  being  possessed  of  the  same  human  nature, 
or  as  members  of  some  cosmopolitan  organization  such  as 
trade  or  religion,  instead  of  as  subjected  to  the  same  social 
and  political  environment. 

We  have  already  suggested  that  national  development 
is  due  to  the  reciprocal  influence  of  the  environment  upon 
the  mind  of  a  people,  and  of  the  mind  of  the  people  upon 
the  environment,  and  that  Nature  herself,  never  pro- 
ducing two  persons  alike,  has  allowed  for  infinite  possibili- 
ties in  the  methods  and  direction  of  social  evolution. 
The  path  of  our  own  national  life,  for  example,  has 
hesitated  at  many  cross-roads ;  has  even  lingered  in  "  way- 
side glens  of  rest  " ;  has  been  stationary  or  even  gone 
back  on  its  own  traces.  And  yet,  when  we  behold  our 
Imperial  nationality  to-day  as  a  powerful  and  organic 
phenomenon,  it  appears  to  be  based  so  firmly  and  inevi- 
tably upon  the  nature  of  things  in  themselves  that  it 
needs  explanation  and  apology  as  little  as  the  sun  and 
the  stars,  the  mountains  and  the  sea;  and  often  it 
scarcely  seems  a  metaphor  to  ascribe  it,  as  the  pious 
and  patriotic  Greek  ascribed  the  origins  of  his  own  city, 
to  divine  agencies  working  out  in  conscious  and  deliberate 
purpose  a  result  designed  before  the  beginning  of  years. 

But  when  we  look  more  closely  into  the  matter,  even 
ever  so  superficially,  we  find  that  the  growth  of  British 
nationality  has  depended  upon  conditions  which  were  to  a 
large  extent  accidental  in  the  usual  sense  of  that  term, 
and  that  it  was  quite  as  possible  for  social  and  political 
development  in  England  to  take  the  line  of  local  disin- 
tegration as  it  was  for  it  to  take  the  line  of  centralized 
harmony.  The  creation  of  a  common  sphere  of  interest 
for  different  communities  depends,  not  only  upon  an 
infinite  variety  of  circumstances,  but  upon  the  way  in 
which  the  minds  of  men  in  general  are  led  to  use  these 
circumstances ;  and  accident  plays  a  great  part  both  in 
effecting  various  combinations  of  circumstances  and  in 
producing  the  minds  that  can  use  them.  It  cannot  be 
supposed  a  fatal  and  foreordained,  a  predestinate  and 
ineluctable,  issue  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  for  example, 
that  the  immature  and  fluctuating  sense  of  nationality 
which  obtained  in  England  at  the  time  of  Edward  the 

160 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Confessor  should  not  only  have  survived  the  devastating 
shock  of  that  stern  invasion,  but  that  it  should  have 
found  something  in  the  apparently  overwhelming  inrush 
of  hostile  elements  to  nurture  it,  organize  it,  and  bring 
it  to  self-conscious  and  confident  maturity,  as  a  child 
may  be  brought  to  strong,  happy  and  resolute  youth  by 
some  devastating  disciplinary  experience.  The  Norman 
Conquest,  however,  not  only  introduced  forces  which 
consolidated  English  nationality,  but  it  contained  large 
disruptive  elements,  and  the  fascination  of  the  early 
history  of  England,  after  that  event,  surely  lies,  not  in 
the  power  we  possess  of  turning  to  the  last  page  of  the 
story  and  finding  that  it  ended  happily,  but  in  following 
the  fluctuating  progress  of  the  national  tendency  until 
we  learn  in  due  course  that  the  interplay  of  human  action 
and  circumstance  gradually  brought  about  the  result 
we  now  find  so  desirable. 

It  is,  of  course,  no  part  of  the  writer's  task,  were  he 
happily  capable  of  it,  to  retell  the  story  of  the  British 
Empire,  even  ever  so  briefly,  although  he  believes 
that,  were  he  to  retell  it,  even  ever  so  fully,  the 
result  would  be  but  the  more  clearly  to  show  that 
the  development  of  nationality  is  but  the  growth  of 
organic  continuity  of  common  interest  as  that  process 
has  been  already  explained.  But  as  he  has  endeavoured 
to  suggest  how  the  sense  of  nationality  was  formed, 
before  the  Norman  Conquest,  by  the  pressure  of  common 
environmental  events  and  circumstances,  checking, 
moulding,  mingling  and  unifying  a  multiplicity  of  local 
and  separatist  interests,  rendered  more  intricate,  as  these 
frequently  were,  by  the  importation  of  alien  elements ;  so 
it  might  be  thought  that  he  was  false  to  the  natural 
development  of  his  argument  if  he  shirked  the  attempt 
to  describe  how  that  feeling  of  national  unity  was,  by 
the  influence  of  subsequent  domestic  and  foreign  events 
and  by  the  action  of  domestic  and  foreign  personalities, 
saved  from  a  reversion  to  local  selfishness  and  strength- 
ened into  something  approaching  its  present  dominating 
and  enthralling  shape.  In  his  effort  to  do  this,  he  will 
endeavour  to  lay  appropriate  emphasis  upon  the  continu- 
ous elements  in  our  national  progress,  while  indicating 
with  sufficient  clearness  the  importance  of  the  newer 
M  161 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

influences  which  broadened  without  loss  of  vitality, 
varied  without  loss  of  identity,  that  stream  of  tradition 
which  connects  each  succeeding  generation  with  its 
predecessors  by  a  bond  more  sacred  and  impressive  than 
the  often  imaginary  bond  of  racial  descent.  The  bond  of 
racial  descent  is  far  from  being  a  connecting  link  between 
all  the  people  that  inhabit  these  Islands  to-day  and  those 
who  inhabited  them  a  thousand  years  ago ;  but  the  bond 
of  common  effort  and  common  sacrifice  towards  building 
up  the  mighty  Imperial  nation  we  have  now  become — 
that  is  a  final,  an  indissoluble  and  a  universal  bond. 

And  at  the  outset  it  seems  desirable  to  dispose  of  any 
possibility  that  the  shibboleths  of  the  race-worshippers 
may  have  greater  validity  in  this  particular  case  than 
they  have  been  proved  to  possess  in  general.  If  the 
results  of  the  Norman  Conquest  and  settlement  of  Britain 
were  due  to  the  infusion  of  new  blood  into  the  veins  and 
arteries  of  the  English,  we  should  have  had  to  wait  for 
these  results  during  that  indefinitely  prolonged  number 
of  generations  which,  upon  the  theories  of  the  scientific 
racialists,  it  takes  to  produce  a  new  mental  quality, 
even  when  the  nuptial  partners  can  be  chosen  upon 
the  "  scientific  "  principles  of  the  stud-groom  and  the 
poultry-farmer :  principles  which,  we  may  venture  to 
guess,  did  not  inspire  or  guide  the  embraces  of  Norman 
soldier  and  Saxon  maiden.  The  political,  social  and 
economic  effects  of  the  Conquest  began  to  make  them- 
selves felt  in  England  at  once ;  and  although  these  results 
in  their  entirety  had  to  await,  and  are  still  awaiting,  final 
consummation  by  the  cpntinued  process  of  social  inter- 
mingling, yet  that  process  has  been  gradual  and  accumul- 
ative in  its  operation,  and  in  its  immediate  initiation 
after  the  Conquest  we  find  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
the  newer  national  characteristics  which  followed  in  its 
train.  Miss  Mary  Bateson,  whose  masculine  grasp  of 
facts  and  feminine  patience  in  dealing  with  them  have 
placed  all  students  of  this  period  in  her  permanent  debt, 
states,  nevertheless,  that  "  the  great  feudalists  whom 
William  endowed  shared  with  him  the  racial  genius  for 
government  which  showed  itself,  not  in  England  only, 
but  likewise  in  Sicily."  x  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 

1  Mediaeval  England,  1066-1350,  by  Mary  Bateson  (T.  Fisher  Unwin, 
1903).  The  gratitude  here  expressed  to  Mi^  Bateson  would  be  extended 

162 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

main  qualities  which  the  Normans  exhibited  in  England 
were  not  the  gift  of  their  "  race  "  at  all,  but  the  result 
of  the  special  experiences  which  they  had  undergone 
during  their  occupation  of  that  part  of  France  to  which 
they  had  given  their  own  name.  That  in  the  century  and 
a  half  during  which  they  had  lived  in  Normandy  (A.D. 
912-1066)  the  ancient  traditional  qualities  of  the  Scandi- 
navian people  to  which  they  belonged  had  been  allowed 
to  die  out  entirely,  would  be  a  gratuitous  and  unnatural 
supposition.  Such  traditions  as  those  of  the  Vikings 
die  a  hard  death.  The  romantic  love  of  military  adven- 
ture is  a  passion  that  lingers  long  in  any  community 
where  it  has  once  held  sway ;  and  a  feudalized  district 
in  the  north  of  France  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  furnished  an  environment 
unfavourable  to  such  a  tradition.  It  is  true  that  from 
seamen  they  had  become  landsmen,  a  change  which 
notoriously  affects  national  character;  and  in  many 
other  respects  they  had  suffered  wonderful  transmuta- 
tions. Their  predominant  "  racial  "  quality  seems  to 
have  greatly  resembled  the  predominant  "  racial " 
quality  of  the  Jews — the  quality  of  rapidly  adopting 
the  "  racial  "  qualities  of  other  peoples  in  place  of  their 
own.  They  forgot  their  own  language;  and  William 
himself  tried  in  vain  to  learn  it  again  when  he  found  its 
like  in  England.  They  adopted  instead  that  quaint 
dialect  of  Romance-Walloon  which  then  passed  for 
French  in  those  parts,  and  their  adaptability  to  its  use 
was  one  of  the  great  contributory  causes  of  the  subsequent 
perfection  of  the  Langue  d'oil.  But  they  contrived  to 
learn  English  before  long  and,  if  they  spoke  French  at  all, 
to  speak  it  as  a  foreign  fashion  and  not  as  a  national 
tradition.  Equally  they  deserted  the  religion  of  their 
"  race,"  and  became  Catholics,  apparently  without 
suffering  any  corresponding  change  of  complexion  or 
cranial  shape.  Garb,  manners,  customs,  laws,  weapons, 
were  no  longer  Danish,  but  French ;  although,  of  the  last, 
Freeman  says  that  the  Norman  soon  learned  to  handle 
them  with  greater  prowess  than  they  had  ever  been 

to  Dr.  Maitland,  except  that  it  would  be  impertinence  in  a  mere  layman 
to  praise  the  work  of  so  great  an  historical  specialist. — The  Constitutional 
History  of  England,  by  F.  W.  Maitland,  LL.D.  (Cambridge  University 
Press,  1908). 

163 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

handled  before.  That  erudite  historian  adds,  concerning 
the  results  of  their  transformation  from  Northmen  to 
Normans,  that  they  "  adopted  a  new  religion,  a  new 
language,  a  new  system  of  law  and  society,  new  thoughts 
and  feelings  on  all  matters  " ;  and  yet  he  states  that 
"  their  national  character  remains  largely  the  same," 
an  academic  plea  that  we  can  pass  by  with  a  look  if  we 
are  allowed  to  believe  that  in  practice  they  exhibited 
"  new  thoughts  and  feelings  on  all  matters,"  since  it  was 
very  largely  these  new  thoughts  and  feelings  which  were 
to  regulate  their  work  upon  the  existing  substratum 
pf  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  when  once  their  ancient 
military  prowess  had  got  them  settled  in  Britain.1  The 
entirely  different  work  which  they  accomplished  in  Italy, 
when  the  adventurous  valour  of  Roger  de  Hauteville  and 
his  little  group  of  Norman  knights,  leading  a  conglomer- 
ate group  of  all  sorts  of  European  free  lances,  had  gained 
for  him  the  crown  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  was  due  to  the 
ready  adaptability  of  the  Norman  genius  to  different 
conditions,  to  its  unconscious  ignorance  of  racial  theories 
and  to  its  grasp  upon  objective  realities. 

For  these  special  reasons,  in  addition  to  those  general 
considerations  worked  out  at  more  detail  in  earlier 
chapters,  it  is  proposed  to  neglect  the  racial  theory  in 
all  its  supposed  bearings'  upon  the  Norman  Conquest, 
and  to  show  how  the  amalgamation  of  the  British  and 
foreign  elements  into  one  enduringly  cohesive  community 
was  due  to  the  operation  of  circumstances  and  the  work 
of  personalities,  diminishing  the  spheres  of  the  hostile 
interests  of  the  two  peoples,  and  increasing  and  finally 
identifying  the  spheres  of  their  friendly  interests,  while 
still  maintaining  that  progressive  continuity  between  one 
generation  and  another  which  is,  indeed,  the  "  soul "  of 
national  existence. 

Now  whether  it  was  due  to  the  national  genius  of  the 
Normans  for  adapting  themselves  to  circumstances,  or 
whether  it  was  that  William  and  his  advisers  were  shrewd 
men  of  affairs  who  had  already  on  the  Continent  dis- 
covered the  great  help  which  a  judicious  use  of  law  can 
give  to  force,  certain  it  is  that  the  Norman  Conquest 
exhibits  at  least  one  capital  feature  which  became  a 

1  See  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  Chap.  IV;  also  his  article  on 
"  The  Norman  "  in  Ency.  Brit.,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  647.  (9th  Ed.) 

164 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

characteristic  principle  of  our  public  and  private,  our 
domestic  and  foreign,  policies — the  recognition,  namely, 
that  even  a  revolution  is  likely  to  have  a  better  prospect 
of  success  if  it  clothes  itself  in  the  formal  garb  of  existing 
laws  and  customs.1  In  seizing  the  conqueror's  prize, 
William  never  advanced  the  conqueror's  claim.  He 
pretended — we  need  not  inquire  too  closely  with  what 
justice — that  he  was  the  heir  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
who,  with  all  his  Norman  proclivities,  was  at  least  an 
English  king ;  that  Harold  was  a  usurper,  as  indeed  he 
was ;  that  every  Englishman  who  opposed  him,  William 
the  Norman,  was,  ipso  facto,  a  traitor  whose  life  and  lands 
were  at  the  mercy  of  English  law.  This  formal  recog- 
nition of  the  validity  of  the  English  legal  and  constitu- 
tional system,  wanting  in  honesty  as  it  might  be  in  the 
main  fact  of  the  imposition  of  a  new  master,  had  its 
actual  realization  in  the  new  master's  administration 
of  the  conquered  territory.  The  English  "  rebels  "  whose 
estates  were  confiscated  to  the  State,  that  is,  to  the 
monarch,  the  feudal  representative  of  the  State,  were 
replaced  by  Normans  and  other  followers  of  the  Con- 
queror, who  were  regarded  as  subject  to  all  the  duties, 
and  entitled  to  all  the  rights,  which  their  predecessors 
had  borne  or  enjoyed  in  accordance  with  the  laws  and 
customs  of  the  country.  The  Royal  Charters,  whose 
Latin  is  sufficiently  quaint  though  eminently  practical, 
abandon  any  attempt  to  express  in  the  consecrated  legal 
language  the  purely  English  rights  of  sac  and  soc,  of  thol 
and  theam,  of  infang-thief  and  outfang-thief,  with  which 
the  royal  will  endows  the  new  tenants  of  the  old  estates.2 
The  composite  character  of  the  legal  administration  of 

"  When  Duke  William  became  king  of  the  English  he  found  (so  he 
well  might  think)  among  the  most  valuable  of  his  newly  acquired  regalia 
a  right  to  levy  a  land-tax  under  the  name  of  geld  or  danegeld." — Domes- 
day Book  and  Beyond,  p.  3.  But  the  King  was  not  the  only  Norman 
who  could  see  the  beauty  of  a  Saxon  precedent  when  it  helped  him  to 
secure  his  ends;  and  Mr.  Kipling,  with  great  propriety,  makes  his 
Norman  knight,  Sir  Richard,  say :  "  I  let  the  Saxons  go  their  stubborn 
way,  but  when  my  own  men-at-arms,  Normans  not  six  months  in 
England,  stood  up  and  told  me  what  was  the  custom  of  the  country,  then 
I  was  angry." — Puck  of  Pootts  Hill,  1st  edition,  p.  50. 

8  This  survival  of  Anglo-Saxon  law  terms  in  the  Corpus  of  Norman 
law  is  merely  one  example  of  the  general  linguistic  tendency  of  the 
time.  Dealing  with  the  language  «of  the  Norman  period  Sir  Stanley 
Leathes  corrects  a  famous  passage  in  Ivanhoe,  and  points  out  "that 

165 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

the  country,  the  commingling  of  different  atmospheres 
of  juristic  tradition,  will  be  more  clearly  evident  when 
we  give  even  a  brief  examination  to  the  main  character- 
istics of  the  Feudal  System.  At  present  we  merely  note 
that,  as  the  principles  of  legal  and  settled  government 
began  to  take  shape  in  the  minds  of  men  as  a  desirable 
check  upon  such  tyranny  as  that  of  William  II.,  there 
was  started,  within  half  a  century  of  the  Conquest,  that 
infinite  series  of  English  law-books  "  which  flows  and, 
as  it  flows,  for  ever  shall  flow  on."  These  early  manuals 
clearly  exhibit  the  conception  of  English  law  as  a  com- 
posite production,  containing,  side  by  side,  provisions 
of  the  Theodosian  Code,  the  Canon  Law,  the  Salic  Law 
and  other  legislation  of  the  Prankish  kings,  legal  prece- 
dents based  on  Anglo-Saxon  dooms,  the  enactments  of 
Norman  kings,  and  the  laws  current  in  the  various 
English  courts  at  the  time.  The  variegated  texture  of 
these  books  serves,  not  only  to  illustrate  the  principle  of 
continuity  4in  English  law,  but  also  to  represent,  in 
their  variety  and  complexity,  its  haphazard  growth  to 
meet  immediate  needs,  and  the  different  traditions 
which  have  influenced  the  constitution  of  our  national 
atmosphere.1 

There  can,  at  any  rate,  be  no  doubt  that  a  great  body 
of  purely  Anglo-Saxon  tradition  and  practice  survived 
the  shock  of  the  Norman  Conquest  and  of  the  confisca- 

"  most  French-speaking  men  and  women  of  fashion  could  not  go  through 
life  without  using  many  English  words.  There  is  much  to  be  learned 
from  such  names  and  phrases  concerning  the  manner  in  which  French- 
men and  Englishmen  worked  together;  ^the  better  things  and  pursuits 
are  as  often  named  in  English  as  in  French  (p.  90).  The  "  commingling 
of  atmospheres  "  in  our  native  tongue  is  too  conspicuous  to  necessitate 
detailed  treatment.  Its  foundation  is  Teutonic,  but  carries  a  mighty 
superstructure  of  Latin  and  Greek  and  Romantic  speech.  The  Germans 
cannot  translate  Shakespeare  because  they  have  no  Latin  to  do  it  with. 
"  I  am  no  orator,  as  Brutus  is,"  is  easily  rendered,  "  Ich  bin  kein  Redner 
als  wie  Brutus  ist,"  but  even  in  "  Redner  "  we  miss  the  Latin  associa- 
tions of  "  orator."  But  how  translate  "  multitudinous  seas  incarna- 
dine "  where  an  absolutely  unique  effect  is  produced  by  the  two  massive 
Latin  polysyllables  buttressing  the  Teutonic  monosyllable  "  seas  "  ? 

1  "  The  jurists  brought  us  that  law  of  continuous  growth  which  has 
transformed  history  from  a  chronicle  of  casual  occurrences  into  the 
likeness  of  something  organic "  (Lord  Acton  :  Lectures  on  Modern 
History), 

166 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

tions  that  followed  it;  but  it  would  carry  us  too  far 
beyond  the  necessities  of  our  present  purpose  were  we 
to  show  how  the  various  royal  and  manorial  courts  in 
existence  before  the  Conquest  were  modified  by  the  organ- 
izing abilities  and  needs  of  the  invaders,  and  how  they 
were  either  strengthened  and  elevated  into  national 
courts  and  councils,  or  had  their  powers  first  restricted 
by  the  natural  development  of  circumstances  and  then 
withdrawn  to  form  part  of  the  greater  stream  of  national 
and  constitutional  progress.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  our 
case  if  we  present  in  brief  outline  the  general  effect 
upon  the  growth  of  English  nationality  produced  by  the 
administrative  and  organizing  skill  and  necessities  of  the 
Normans  as  evinced  in  their  application  of  the  Feudal 
System  to  English  political  life  in  general. 

The  Feudal  System  was  one  of  the  things  the  Normans 
had  learnt  in  France ;  but  their  submission  to  the  .French 
tradition  did  not  carry  them  to  the  extent  of  taking  it 
over  in  its  entirety  as  there  practised.  The  Feudal 
System  contained  two  opposing  principles,  a  principle 
of  centralization  and  a  principle  of  disruption;  and 
throughout  the  whole  group  of  the  feudal  countries  the 
growth  of  nationality  has  been  fostered  or  thwarted 
in  proportion  as  the  first  or  the  second  principle  has 
obtained  the  predominance.  In  France  at  this  period  the 
disruptive  principle  was  triumphant.  Although  princes, 
dukes  and  counts  technically  held  their  territories  as  the 
King's  men,  paying  him  in  return  the  ceremonial  duties 
of  homage  and  loyalty,  yet  in  most  cases  the  homage 
and  the  loyalty  were  no  more  sincere  than  if  they  had  on 
every  occasion  been  shown  as  Duke  Rollo  showed  them,  by 
kissing  the  King's  foot  in  such  a  rude  manner  as  to  throw 
His  Majesty  on  His  Majesty's  back.  The  paramount  lord 
was  paramount  only  in  his  own  immediate  territories,  or 
over  weak  and  un warlike  vassals.  Political  power,  the 
practical  attributes  of  sovereignty,  were  exercised  by 
his  more  powerful  servants  as  complete  lords  of  their 
separate  domains.  The  same  attitude  was  maintained 
to  their  masters  by  the  vassals  of  the  lords  who  held 
directly  of  the  King.  Policy,  administration,  jurisdic- 
tion, were  split  up  into  a  thousand  fragmentary  and 
separatist  activities,  which  operated  to  make  the  interests 

167 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  the  individual  subject  revolve  around  his  immediate 
lord,  whilst  separating  him  entirely  from  direct  approach 
to  the  theoretical  fountain  of  all  authority.  Although 
the  Norman  dukes  learnt  to  pay  formal  homage  with  a 
more  delicate  courtesy  than  the  first  of  them,  yet  they 
were  none  the  less  absolute  masters  in  their  own  house ; 
which,,  so  far  as  their  relation  to  the  supreme  lord  is 
concerned,  was,  as  things  were,  a  matter  for  no  surprise. 
The  wonder  is  that  their  mastership  was  equally  com- 
plete so  far  as  their  own  tenants  were  concerned,  im- 
mediate, intermediate  and  subordinate  alike.  And  yet, 
after  all,  there  is  little  to  wonder  at  if  we  suppose  that 
the  Norman  dukes  had  some  sense  of  logic,  and  some 
strength  of  character,  and  some  force  of  material  equip- 
ment to  carry  logic  to  its  proper  conclusions  in  practice. 
The  feudal  theory  was  adopted  by  the  Norman  dukes 
as  being  an  excellent  theory  if  only  it  was  consistently 
put  into  actual  working.  According  to  this  theory  the 
Duke  of  Normandy  was  the  sovereign  of  Normandy. 
Certain  powers  he  claimed  to  exercise  over  every  tenant, 
no  matter  at  how  many  removes  the  land  was  held.  And 
although  this  direct  authority  as  exercised  by  the  Dukes 
of  Normandy  was  nothing  like  so  great  and  all-embracing 
as  it  came  to  be  when  developed  by  the  Kings  of  England, 
yet  it  is  to  their  firm  grasp  upon  the  importance  of 
centralization  as  a  principle  of  State  power  that  we 
largely  owe  the  constitutional  form  which  British 
nationality  exhibits  to-day.  For  when  Duke  William 
became  King  of  England  it  was  this  part  of  the  feudal 
theory  that  he  applied  with  the  greatest  insight,  skill 
and  determination.  At  once  he  insisted  upon  the  oath 
of  fealty  as  a  direct  bond  between  himself  and  every 
tenant  and  sub-tenant  in  the  land,  and  laid  down  the 
principle  that  military  service  was  due,  not  to  any 
intermediate  lord,  but  to  the  King  alone ;  that  no  man 
was  bound  to  assist  his  immediate  lord  in  his  private 
quarrels  with  other  lords.  The  greatest  blow  directed 
against  the  disruptive  tendency  inherent  in  the  Contin- 
ental system  was  the  great  series  of  land  surveys  em- 
bodied in  Domesday  Book,  which  was  a  preparatory  step 
to  exacting  the  direct  and  appropriate  oath  of  loyal 
service  from  every  tenant,  however  humble,  to  the  person 

168 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

of  the  King  himself.  The  greatness  of  this  blow  can  be 
measured  by  the  length  of  time  which  it  took  to  drive 
it  home  upon  the  constantly  rebellious  feudal  barons. 
But  the  struggle  only  had  the  result  of  still  more  firmly 
establishing  the  principle,  until  great  feudal  lords  ceased 
to  disturb  the  land,  either  with  full-blown  rebellions,  or 
private  wars  decked  out  with  all  the  solemn  paraphernalia 
of  offensive  and  defensive  alliances.  The  centralization  of 
political  and  administrative  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
King  meant  the  establishment  of  the  first  of  the  three 
great  forces  which  are  at  once  a  sign  and  a  cause  of 
a  growing  sense  of  nationality — "  one  King  "  is  the 
prelude  to  "  one  law  "  and  then  to  "  one  Parliament." 

It  will  not,  of  course,  be  supposed  that  the  tendencies 
which  operate  to  produce  these  three  great  forces  act  in 
isolation  each  from  the  other ;  and  as  we  proceed  to  give 
a  brief  account  of  the  rise  of  a  "  common  law  "  as  a 
distinctive  mark  of  conscious  nationality  it  will  be  seen 
how  closely  the  growth  of  national  law  was  involved  with 
the  growth  of  a  national  kingship. 

The  decentralizing  power  inherent  in  the  Feudal  System 
was  manifested,  not  only  in  the  military  independence 
claimed  by  the  great  tenants,  but  also  in  the  separate 
jurisdiction  which  they  maintained  within  the  bounds 
of  their  manors.  The  court-baron  and  the  customary 
court  of  the  manor,  which  were  tribunals  mainly  occupied 
in  the  settlement  of  questions  of  land-tenure  and  the 
obligations  which  they  carried  with  them,  gradually 
came  to  be  essential  elements  of  feudal  administration ; 
and  even  the  "  hundred  "  courts,  originally  courts  whose 
judges  were  freeholders,  had,  for  the  most  part,  either  by 
royal  warrant  or  in  less  direct  ways,  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  great  landowners  by  the  thirteenth  century, 
giving  them  a  certain  jurisdiction  in  criminal  matters. 
The  very  principles  of  justice  varied  in  these  local 
courts  in  accordance  with  varieties  of  customary  rights. 
That  the  methods  of  their  administration  wanted  uni- 
formity is  a  clear  corollary  from  the  personal  authority 
exercised  either  by  the  baron  directly  or  by  his  servants 
who  presided  over  the  courts.  But  while  this  disinteg- 
rating principle  was  in  operation  for  two  centuries  after 
the  Conquest,  it  was  being  happily  countered^by  the 

169 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

opposing  principle  of  centralization.  This  process  was 
conducted  in  two  main  directions :  by  bringing  into 
close  contact  with  the  royal  authority  certain  old 
English  courts,  which  were  thus  used  as  a  counterbalance 
to  the  power  of  the  feudal  courts;  and  by  direct  and 
conscious  action  on  the  part  of  the  lawyers  and  statesmen 
who  served  the  kings  toward  centralizing  the  legal 
administration  of  the  country  in  a  great  group  of  royal 
courts. 

The  most  striking  and  typical  example  of  the  first 
process  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Court  of  the  Shiremoot,  the  judicial  assembly  of  all  the 
freeholders  of  the  shire.  The  Norman  kings,  by  not 
merely  allowing,  but  compelling,  not  only  the  highest 
but  the  humblest  freeholders  to  attend  its  meetings  on  a 
footing  of  legal  equality,  and  by  strengthening  the  office 
of  the  Sheriff  as  the  royal  officer  chiefly  interested  in 
maintaining  the  powers  and  privileges  of  the  King  as 
they  existed  in  the  shire,  established  an  anti -feudal,  a 
nationalizing,  institution  in  the  very  heart  and  centre  of 
a  feudalized  community.  The  English  Shiremoot  be- 
came the  Norman  County  Court ;  the  Sheriff  became  the 
Viscount — the  vice-comes — the  President  of  the  County 
Court,  the  Viceroy  of  the  County  itself;  and  fiscal, 
military  and  judicial  affairs  came  under  his  control  as 
representative  of  the  central  authority.  We  can  gather 
something  of  the  extent  to  which  the  principle  of  cen- 
tralization had  triumphed  over  the  principle  of  local 
particularism  when  we  observe  that  only  a  century 
after  the  Conquest  the  King  found  himself  able  to  dismiss 
all  the  Sheriffs  and  appoint  others,  putting  lawyers  and 
courtiers  in  the  places  of  feudal  landholders. 

But  if  the  assembly  of  all  the  freeholders  of  every 
county  for  the  administration  of  that  uniform  justice 
in  which  they  had  a  common  interest  was  thus 
directly  associated  with  the  central  power  through  the 
Sheriff,  a  still  more  fruitful  connexion  was  established 
by  a  gradual  extension  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King's 
own  courts.  No  institution  created  by  man  develops 
entirely  or  mainly  on  unconscious  lines — the  interpreting 
and  directing  power  of  human  intelligence  and  character 
is  naturally  the  chief  cause  in  moulding  the  environ- 

170 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

mcnt  to  satisfy  human  ideals.  From  the  time  that  the 
Conqueror  himself  had  established  the  Curia  Regis, 
which  specialized  in  the  judicial  functions  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Witenagemot,  leaving  its  legislative  powers  to  the 
Commune  Concilium  Rcgni,  or  general  assembly  of  great 
feudal  vassals,  and  had  placed  the  new  tribunal  under  his 
representative,  the  Justiciary,  the  Curia  had  formed  the 
nucleus  of  a  great  and  growing  body  of  skilled  lawyers, 
all  interested  in  increasing  its  prestige  and  the  scope  of 
its  jurisdiction.  From  that  moment  onwards  we  find 
this  court  transforming  itself  from  a  King's  Court  to  a 
national  court.  Gradually  it  extended  its  boundaries 
as  a  court  of  final  appeal ;  gradually  it  took  over  an 
increasing  amount  of  the  work  previously  performed  by 
the  local  courts;  gradually  it  became  a  court  of  first 
instance  as  well  as  a  court  of  appeal ;  and  as  its  principles 
of  jurisprudence  and  their  application  were  uniform  as 
compared  with  the  variegated  judicial  practice  of  the 
local  courts  of  the  shire,  the  hundred,  the  manor  and  the 
town,  there  rapidly  grew  up  a  body  of  precedent  which 
was  inevitably  regarded  as  national  law.  This  law  was 
expounded  in  books  like  that  of  Ranulf  de  Glanvill,  the 
justiciary  of  Henry  II.  (appointed  in  1180),  who  distinctly 
states  that  his  "  Treatise  on  the  Laws  of  England  "  deals 
only  with  the  King's  Court,  as  the  variety  of  custom 
presented  in  the  local  courts  was  too  confusing  for 
description.  Meanwhile  the  Canon  law,  the  law  of  the 
Church,  administered  in  ecclesiastical  courts  upon  prin- 
ciples applicable  in  every  district  alike,  and  in  many 
regards  affecting  all  alike,  laymen  as  well  as  ecclesiastics, 
had  accustomed  men's  minds  to  the  idea  of  general  or 
common  law;  and  partly  owing  to  this,  and  partly  to 
the  fact  that  the  King's  Court  responded  to  a  general 
demand  for  remedies  elsewhere  unobtainable,  we  learn 
without  surprise  that  barely  a  century  after  the  Conquest 
the  King's  Court  not  only  decided  suits  affecting  the  King 
and  the  realm  (Court  of  King's  Bench),  acted  as  a  final 
court  of  appeal  (The  King  in  Council),  and  settled  suits 
concerning  the  revenue  (Court  of  Exchequer),  but  also 
served  as  a  court  of  first  instance  for  private  suits  (Court 
of  Common  Pleas).  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  when 
Henry  II.  effected  this  systematization  of  the  royal 

171 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Courts  of  Justice  he  exhibited  conspicuously  before  the 
eyes  of  all  his  subjects  the  fact  that  England  was  one  in 
her  law  as  she  was  one  in  her  king.  The  suppression  of 
local  variations  in  legal  practice  was  gradually  completed ; 
the  courts  of  the  shire  and  the  hundred,  as  well  as  the 
feudal  courts,  lost  their  effective  judicial  powers ;  the 
word  "  justice "  becomes  a  synonym  for  the  law  of 
England  and  not  the  law  of  any  particular  district  as 
apart  from  the  rest ;  and,  as  is  well  known,  Henry  drove 
the  point  of  his  reforms  home  by  the  appointment  of 
circuit  judges,  who  visited  the  county  courts,  revised 
their  judgments  or  submitted  them  for  revision  by  the 
central  court  at  Westminster,  where  the  county  had  to 
present  itself  in  the  persons  of  its  Knights  of  the  Shire. 
The  famous  phrase  "  Nolumus  leges  Angliae  mutare," 
with  which  the  barons  opposed  the  application  of  ecclesi- 
astical law  to  a  particular  matter  in  which  their  interests 
were  involved,  strikingly  exhibits  the  corporate  and 
unified  character  which  the  national  legal  system  had 
assumed  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  before  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century. 

This  appeal  to  the  "  Laws  of  England  "  against  those 
of  the  Church  was  made  in  the  year  1236.  Sixteen  years 
later  a  phrase  of  still  wider  national  application  was  used 
by  the  Countess  of  Arundel,  who  reproached  King 
Henry  III.  for  having  extorted  money  from  his  subjects, 
and  for  thus  violating  "  the  liberties  of  England"  This 
incident  marks  a  significant  concentration  of  public 
opinion  in  the  direction  of  nationality,  inasmuch  as 
neither  king  nor  law  has  any  meaning  apart  from 
the  people  who  are  loyal  to  the  one  and  obedient  to  the 
other.  The  King  is  the  symbol  of  the  united  people ;  the 
law  is  the  safeguard  of  the  united  people.  There  can  be 
no  full  and  clear  sense  of  national  unity  until  it  is  recog- 
nized by  the  King  that  the  royal  power  and  the  laws  are 
not  his  power  and  his  laws,  but  the  power  and  the  laws 
of  the  people.  One  parliament  must  follow  one  king 
and  one  law — one  parliament  in  which  the  common  voice 
of  the  people  shall  give  expression  to  the  national  will  on 
the  policy  of  the  King  and  the  administration  of  the  laws. 
The  history  of  the  rise  of  the  English  Parliament  is  well 
known.  We  resume  it  briefly  with  the  object  of  showing 

172     • 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  composite  nature  of  the  forces  which  won  the  victory 
for  the  people,  and  of  illustrating  the  fact  that  this  con- 
summation was  due  to  the  operation  of  circumstances 
which  broke  down  the  hostile  interests  of  the  various 
component  elements  in  the  realm  and  created  spheres 
of  common  interest  to  take  their  place. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  contest  for  mastery 
between  kings  and  feudal  barons,  between  the  principle 
of  centralization  and  the  principle  of  disruption,  ended 
in  the  triumph  of  the  former.  But  while  the  fight  was 
proceeding  the  people  as  a  whole,  who  took  one  side  or 
the  other  according  to  the  pressure  of  local  events  and 
personalities,  began  to  lose  their  hostility  to  the  Normans 
as  such,  and,  as  they  were  at  first  more  oppressed  by  the 
baronage  than  by  the  King,  we  frequently  find  them 
acting  with  energy  and  effect  on  behalf  of  the  latter. 
Several  feudal  insurrections  were  put  down  by  their 
help,  even  in  the  Conqueror's  time ;  and  William  Rufus 
could  gather  them  to  his  standard  by  appealing  to  the 
ancient  English  contempt  of  the  "  nithing."  Henry  I., 
who  certainly  owed  his  throne  to  the  support  of  the 
English,  and  could  always  depend  for  military  assistance 
from  the  "  fyrd "  or  "  Anglise  exercitus,"  cemented 
the  union  of  king  and  people  by  the  Charter  in  which  he 
promised  to  restore  and  maintain  the  "  laws  of  Edward 
the  Confessor,"  and  by  his  marriage  with  an  English 
princess  who,  as  the  Norman  lords  sneeringly  put  it, 
played  the  Saxon  Godgifu  to  his  Saxon  Godric.  That 
Henry  was  able  to  disregard  the  sneer  shows  the  increas- 
ing impotence  of  purely  Norman  prejudices  even  in 
aristocratic  social  circles.  THese  and  similar,  incidents 
illustrate  the  manner  in  which  the  hostile  spheres  of 
interest  of  English  and  Norman,  sharply  defined  as 
they  were  at  first,  were  shifting  and  interchanging 
and  commingling ;  and  we  can  see  emerging,  gradually, 
indeed,  but  effectively,  a  general  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  Englishmen,  as  such,  whether  belonging  to  the 
Norman  or  the  Anglo-Saxon  tradition,  have  at  least 
one  great  common  interest — the  interest  of  good  govern- 
ment as  centred  in  the  King.  The  feudal  and  royal 
anarchy  of  the  reign  of  Stephen  only  tended  to  accentuate 
and  strengthen  this  feeling,  and  the  most  significant 

173 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

aspect  of  the  legal  and  constitutional  changes  effected 
by  Henry  II.  lies  in  the  King's  recognition  that  he  is 
governing  a  united  people,  that  the  laws  he  is  making 
and  the  courts  he  is  consolidating  are  the  laws  and 
the  cburts  of  the  English  people,  and  <  that  it  is  not  less 
for  their  advantage  than  for  his  own  that  he  must  govern 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  he  has  recognized.  This 
principle,  implicit  in  the  legislative  work  of  Henry  II., 
becomes  explicit  in  the  action  of  the  barons  in  the  reign 
of  John ;  although  the  real  importance  of  the  Great 
Charter  itself  is  implicit  rather  than  explicit.  Explicitly 
it  lays  down  the  principle  that  the  King,  if  he  breaks  the 
law  of  the  land,  can  be  compelled  by  the  barons  to 
amend  his  ways  by  a  legalized  display  of  force.  It  has 
been  maintained  by  a  French  critic  of  our  history  that 
Magna  Carta  was  in  no  sense  a  national  document,  but 
was  conceived  entirely  in  the  interests  of  the  barons 
themselves;  that,  to  revert  to  our  own  phraseology,  it 
gave  a  legal  sanction  to  the  principle  of  feudal  disruption 
by  justifying  the  right  of  baronial  rebellion.  But  the 
same  critic  has  admitted  that  "  false  interpretations  of 
some  of  its  articles  have  not  been  without  influence 
on  the  development  of  English  liberties,  men  having 
discovered  in  it,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  all  sorts  of 
principles  of  which  its  authors  had  not  the  least  notion."  * 
In  a  word,  the  barons  builded  better  than  they  knew. 
The  legal  and  personal  rights  of  the  "  liber  homo  "  were 
secured  by  the  Charter  when  the  conception  of  legal  and 
personal  liberty  widened  with  the  progress  of  our 
national  life.  The  principles  which  the  barons  laid 
down  on  behalf  of  their  own  order  were  expressed  in 
language  which  was  capable  of  a  wider  interpretation  as  it 
came  to  be  recognized  that  other  orders  had  an  interest 
in  a  strong  and  just  national  government.  It  cannot  be 
claimed  that  a  full  national  consciousness  is  expressed  in 
the  Great  Charter,  but  the  forms  of  government  by  the 
people  for  the  people  are  already  there,  soon  to  be  flushed 
with  the  new  and  more  comprehensive  life  which  was 
stirring  in  the  growing  and  strengthening  nation. 

1  Studies  and  Notes  Supplementary  to  Stubbs"  Constitutional  History 
down  to  the.  Great  Charter,  by  Charles  Petit-Dutaillis,  translated  by 
W.  E.  Rhodes,  M.A.  (Manchester  University  Press,  1908). 

174 


Although  Henry  III.  was  placed  upon  the  throne  by 
foreign  rather  than  by  national  influence,  by  the  power 
of  the  Papal  Legate  rather  than  by  the  power  of  those 
English  barons  who  took  his  part;  although  the  King 
himself  was  more  French  than  English  in  his  tastes  and 
predilections ;  yet  it  is  in  his  reign  that  we  have  the  rise 
of  that  national  movement  which  gives  us  the  English 
Parliament  as  the  organ  and  expression  of  a  strong 
national  sentiment.  Henry's  policy  allowed  England 
to  become  the  happy  hunting-ground  of  every  Savoyard 
and  Poitevin  and  Proven9al  who  saw  in  the  favour  of 
Henry's  Proven9al  Queen  opportunities  for  personal 
aggrandisement.  By  a  touch  of  historical  irony,  one 
of  these  foreigners  was  Simon  de  Montfort,  to  whose 
action  in  purely  English  politics  it  was  largely  due  that 
the  old  feudal  ideas  of  separate  local  independence  were 
finally  overthrown,  and  even  the  sole  right  of  barons 
and  prelates  to  advise  the  King  in  matters  affecting  the 
Commonweal  was  destroyed  by  the  admission  to  the 
common  Council  of  the  Realm  of  that  element  repre- 
sented by  the  burghers  and  the  Knights  of  the  Shire. 
This  element  of  popular  representation  was  not  per- 
manently established  by  De  Montfort' s  Parliament  of 
1265,  but  when  De  Montfort's  "  rival  and  pupil,"  the 
"  English  Justinian,"  Edward  I.,  came  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  administrative  concentration,  he  found  that  he 
could  most  firmly  establish  the  central  power  by  building 
up  a  national  consultative  assembly  in  which  the  people 
should  find  itself  represented  as  fully  as  was  then 
thought  possible,  and  we  see  the  fruition  of  De  Mont- 
fort's  earlier  labours  in  the  so-called  "  Model  Parlia- 
ment"  of  1295.-  "What  touches  all,"  said  the  King, 
"  should  be  approved  by  all ;  common  dangers  should 
be  met  by  remedies  agreed  upon  in  common.  The  King 
of  France  has  beset  my  realm  with  a  great  fleet  and  a 
great  multitude  of  warriors,  and  proposes  to  blot  out 
the  English  tongue  from  the  face  of  the  earth."  There 
at  last  we  have  a  full  and  authoritative  expression  of 
that  conscious  sentiment  of  nationality  which  presents 
a  whole  community,  formed  out  of  many  warring 
elements,  as  united  in  a  single  effort  of  internal  adminis- 
tration and  foreign  action. 

175 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

But  while  the  consolidation  of  the  nationalistic  senti- 
ment was  being  effected  as  against  the  spirit  of  feudal 
disruption,  it  was,  at  the  same  time,  no  less  persistently 
asserted  as  against  the  cosmopolitan  ideals  of  ecclesi- 
asticism.  It  was  Gregory  VII.  who,  as  Subdeacon 
Hildebrand,  had  blessed  the  Norman  standard  which 
was  victorious  at  Hastings;  and  the  titanic  struggle 
between  the  Hildebrandine  Papacy  and  the  secular 
"  Holy "  Roman  Empire  of  Henry  IV.  was  felt  by 
England  in  many  direct  and  indirect  results.  The 
exemption  of  ecclesiastics  from  civil  jurisdiction, 
unknown  in  the  primitive  ages  of  the  Church,  except  so 
far  as,  in  accordance  with  Apostolic  precept,  its  members 
settled  their  differences  amongst  themselves,  arose 
gradually  and  almost  accidentally,  and  was  not  fully 
established  even  so  late  as  the  tenth  century.1  But  from 
that .  time  the  practice  spread  rapidly  throughout 
Western  Christendom;  and  the  spiritual  courts,  by  the 
regularity  of  their  procedure  and  the  full  opportunities 
allowed  for  the  revision  of  judgments  step  by  step  until, 
if  necessary,  they  reached  the  Pope  himself,  presented 
an  impressive  picture  of  established  judicial  procedure, 
securing  that  fairness  in  the  settlement  of  disputes 
which  seems  so  desirable  to  men  who  have  been  long 
harassed  by  the  strong  hand  of  arbitrary  tyranny. 
It  was  in  these  courts,  established  in  every  part  of 
Papal  Christendom,  that  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
found  the  machinery  for  carrying  out  their  ideal  of  a 
universal  state,  of  which  secular  kings  and  emperors 
should  be  the  vassals  and  instruments. 

We  have  already  described  the  condition  of  practical 

1  "  On  the  establishment  of  Christianity  the  practice  obtained 
legislative  sanction,  Constantino  giving  the  bishop's  court  concurrent 
jurisdiction  with  the  ordinary  civil  courts  where  both  parties  preferred 
the  former,  and  by  a  later  enactment  going  so  far  as  to  empower  one 
of  the  parties  to  a  suit  to  remove  it  to  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal  against 
the  will  of  the  other. — Honorius  judged  it  expedient  to  revert  to  the 
original  rule,  and,  at  least  as  regarded  laymen,  to  limit  the  right  of 
resort  to  the  episcopal  judicatory  to  cases  in  which  both  parties  con- 
sented."— The  clerical  judge,  however,  had  no  criminal  jurisdiction, 
and,  even  in  a  civil  case,  his  finding,  if  not  voluntarily  implemented, 
has  to  be  rendered  operative  by  the  aid  of  the  civil  magistrate. — 
Historical  Introduction  to  tJie  Private  Law  of  Rome,  by  James  Muirhead, 
LL.D.  (Edinburgh :  A.  &  C.  Black,  1886),  p.  434. 

176 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

independence  which  the  English  Church,  so  far  as  the 
Papacy  was  concerned,  had  enjoyed  before  the  Conquest. 
That  event,  however,  brought  it  into  the  full  circle  of 
Continental  ecclesiasticism,  and  the  Conqueror's  early 
substitution  of  English  abbots  by  cosmopolitan  Church 
dignitaries  from  Bee  and  Caen  and  Lombardy  and 
Lorraine  soon  flooded  the  English  Church  with  minds 
fully  instructed  in  the  principles  of  ecclesiastical  juris- 
prudence. Little  inconvenience  was  felt  in  the  reign 
of  the  Conqueror,  who,  aided  by  the  English  ecclesiastical 
tradition  of  independence  and  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  union 
of  Church  and  State,  fostered  the  Church  as  subordinate 
to  the  Crown,  exacting  feudal  homage  from  the  bishops, 
but  himself  repudiating  the  claim  of  Pope  Gregory  VII.' 
to  exact  it  from  him,  although  he  sowed  the  seeds  of 
much  future  mischief  by  allowing  the  creation  of  separate 
ecclesiastical  courts  in  the  country.  For  a  century  and 
a  half  after  the  Conquest  the  kings  adhered  to  their 
claim  to  appoint  archbishops,  bishops  and  abbots,  whose 
positions  as  barons  in  the  secular  feudal  hierarchy 
made  it  important  that  they  should  be  in  harmony  with 
the  political  views  of  the  central  authority.  Both 
Henry  I.  and  Henry  II.  had  been  strict  in  asserting  this 
necessary  instrument  of  royal  policy,  and  the  latter 
had  even  been  able,  notwithstanding  the  bitter  opposi- 
tion of  Becket,  to  inflict  a  set-back  upon  clerical  freedom 
from  civil  jurisdiction.  But  the  dream  of  an  Imperial 
Church  fatally  obsessed  the  minds  of  the  Popes  and 
their  supporters.  About  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century  a  copy  of  the  Digest  or  Pandects  of  Justinian, 
prepared  as  a  compendious  exposition  of  what  was  most 
valuable  in  Roman  jurisprudence,  appears  to  have  been 
found  at  Pisa.  This  account  of  the  principles  of  Roman 
law,  richer  in  material,  clearer  and  more  logical  in  form, 
than  any  previously  accessible,  and  issued  as  it  had 
been  by  a  Christian  emperor  as  a  Perpetual  Edict, 
was  welcomed  by  the  Roman  Church  as  an  additional 
instrument  in  the  perfection  of  her  universal  organiza- 
tion, and  ecclesiastically-minded  lawyers  lectured  on 
the  new  legal  manual  in  every  university  and  city  of 
Western  Europe,  starting  at  Bologna  from  the  school 
of  Irnerius  into  whose  hands  the  new  MS.  had  found 
N  177 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

its  way.1  The  Vicar  of  Christ  as  feudal  lord  of  the  world, 
whose  sway  was  buttressed  by  a  detailed  and  definite 
system  of  law  universal  in  its  application — this,  indeed, 
was  the  very  apotheosis  of  the  principle  of  centraliza- 
tion; but  grandiose  as  the  ideal  was,  and  logically 
based  upon  an  extension  of  those  very  principles  which 
had  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  separate  kingdoms 
and  states  of  Europe,  it  presented  features  which 
brought  it  into  opposition  to  the  rising  forces  of  nation- 
ality, with  the  result  that,  not  only  on  the  Continent, 
but  in  England  also,  the  national  tradition  refused  to 
submit  to  the  universal  Church.  But  the  force  of  the 
ecclesiastical  conception,  embodied  in:  one  of  the  most 
perfectly  organized  institutions  the  world  has  ever 
known,  was  sufficient  to  bring  weak  kings  like  John 
and  Henry  III.  to  the  feet  of  the  Church.  John  sur- 
rendered his  kingdom  to  Pope  Innocent  III.  and  received 
it  back  as  the  Pope's  feudal  vassal.  Even  Magna  Carta 
conceded  the  right  of  free  election  to  cathedral  chapters 
and  religious  houses,  and  inferentially  made  every  elec- 
tion subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Pope,  who  also 
claimed  and  exercised  from  this  time  onward  an  absolute 
power  over  nominations  to  many  English  benefices. 
This  power  enabled  Gregory  IX.  to  extract  large  sums 
from  England  to  support  him  in  his  final  conflict  with 
the  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  and  these  exactions,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  so  many  foreign  incumbents  had 
been  imposed  on  English  parishes,  where  they  were  paid 
for  services  which  they  could  not  perform,  accentuated 
the  rising  national  exasperation  against  the  foreigner, 
whether  here  for  social  profit  or  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment, gave  greater  driving  power  to  the  movement 
which  created  the  Parliaments  of  1265  and  1295,  and 
enabled  Edward  I.  to  obtain  full  national  sanction  for 
the  great  series  of  enactments  in  which  he  established 
both  the  spiritual  and  political  independence  of  England 
against  the  Papacy  and  its  claim  to  universal  dominion. 
As  on  the  purely  political  side  of  nationality  there  were 
set-backs  and  retrogressions,  so  also  on  the  purely 
ecclesiastical  side  there  were  to  be  vicissitudes,  until 
the  Tudor  monarchs  completed  the  work  of  the 
1  Muirhead'a  Private  Law  of  Rome,  p.  434. 
178 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

First  Edward  by  centralizing  ecclesiastical  as  well  as 
political  authority  in  the  head  of  the  State.  The 
spheres  of  spiritual  power  and  political  action  were 
amalgamated  to  form  constituent  elements  in  the  wider 
sphere  of  national  life. 

From  this  point  onward  historians  of  England, 
however  much  their  narrative  may  be  coloured  by 
sympathy  with  this  or  that  protagonist  in  the  struggle, 
can  only  record  facts  which,  more  or  less  effectively, 
only  describe  persons  who,  more  or  less  willingly,  con- 
tributed their  share  to  that  final  consummation  of 
British  political  life  which  substitutes  symbolic  kingship 
for  personal  kingship.  The  nineteenth  century  realiza- 
tion of  the  ideal  of  the  King  as  the  symbol  of  a  united 
people,  representing  their  conscience,  their  hopes  and 
their  collective  purpose,  is  the  final  triumph  of  the 
principle  of  centralization  which  was  the  permanent 
Norman  contribution  to  the  influences  that  have  made 
for  national  development.  The  Normans  also  contributed 
another  influence — the  tendency  to  disruption  and  dis- 
integration ;  but,  aided  by  the  special  circumstances  which 
moulded  the  character  of  English  kings  and  English 
people  on  English  soil,  they  placed  the  former  principle 
on  so  sound  a  basis  that  after  the  thirteenth  century 
it  was  never  eliminated  from  our  English  national  life. 
The  conflict  between  the  two  was  not  yet  over ;  but  as 
the  Tudor  and  Stuart  love  of  personal  monarchy  was 
in  reality  a  return  to  the  disruptive  principle,  inasmuch 
as  it  claimed  powers  for  the  King  apart  from  the  will 
of  the  people,  and  tended  to  set  up  again  two  funda- 
mentally interhostile  elements  in  the  State,  it  can  be 
no  matter  for  surprise  that  the  old  tradition  of  unity 
finally  re-asserted  itself  over  the  individualism  of  the 
kings.  But  when  the  monarchy  survived  the  execution 
of  one  royal  personage  and  the  expulsion  of  another, 
it  was  clearly  evident  that  the  principle  of  royalty 
existed  independently  of  persons,  and  had  its  essential 
value  and  meaning  in  symbolizing  and  representing  the 
united  people  of  the  nation.  From  1688  onwards  the 
whole  tendency  of  our  political  development  has  been 
in  the  direction  of  still  further  strengthening  the  Crown 
as  against  the  person  of  the  King,  by  making  the  Crown 

179 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  symbol  of  a  united  nation  and  at  last  of  a  united 
Empire.  The.  Crown,  as  we  have  seen,  however,  is 
not  the  only  symbol  of  our  national  unity ;  and  whether 
it  can  long  remain  practically  the  only  symbol  of  our 
Imperial  unity  is  a  question  which  does  not  concern 
us  here,  except  to  suggest  that  some  hints  towards  a 
solution  of  the  question,  when  it  becomes  urgent,  as 
it  is  rapidly  becoming  urgent,  may  be  found  in  the 
precedents  of  our  national  history. 

If  we  were  able  to  detail  at  length  the  steps  which 
led  to  the  incorporation  of  Wales,  Scotland  and  Ireland 
in  the  United  Kingdom,  the  story  would  but  illustrate 
more  fully  the  fact  that  the  growth  of  common  nationality 
is  no  question  of  the  mixing  of  the  blood  of  different 
races,  but  only  a  question  of  an  historical  process  by 
which  competing  and  mutually  hostile  spheres  of  interest 
are  diminished  or  disappear  in  the  wider  '  spheres  of 
common  interest.  The  fact  that  internecine  wars  were 
long  carried  on  between  the  various  parts  of  the  now 
united  kingdom  indicates  -the  hostility  of  the  separate 
spheres  of  interest  towards  each  other;  the  union  of 
these  parts  in  one  single  constitutional  system  is  an 
intimation  of  the  growth  of  a  sphere  of  common  interests, 
common  sentiments  and  common  hopes.  Just  so  far 
as  the  pressure  of  circumstances  and  the  conscious  actions 
of  men  have  tended  to  produce  a  strong  sense  of  common 
interest,  just  to  that  extent  is  the  sense  of  common 
nationality  strongly  and  securely  based ;  as  in  the  cases 
of  Wales  and  Scotland.  Just  so  far  as  the  pressure 
of  circumstances  and  the  C9nscious  action  of  men  have 
failed  to  produce  a  strong  sense  of  common  interest, 
just  to  that  extent  has  the  sense  of  common  nationality 
been  weak  and  halting,  as  at  most  periods  in  the  history 
of  Ireland.  The  case  of  Scotland  is  particularly  in- 
teresting as  showing  how  much  practical  unity  can  exist 
side  by  side  with  considerable  diversity  of  national 
customs  and  national  character.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the 
happy  paradoxes  of  British  nationality  that  the  strongest 
sense  of  unity  is  nurtured  upon  local  freedom  in  matters 
which  do  not  directly  concern  the  spheres  of  national 
politics. 

In  the  case  of  the  Colonies,  the  feeling  of  common 

180 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

interest  has  existed  from  the  first,  as  the  oversea  settlers 
necessarily  'carried  with  them  the  national  tradition 
in  which  they  had  been  born  and  reared.  Even  when 
the  emigration  was  due  to  a  desire  to  escape  tyrannical 
infringements  of  personal  or  social  freedom,  the  refugees 
took  with  them  that  very  principle  of  liberty  which 
they  regarded  as  the  birthright  of  Englishmen ;  the 
sacred  necessity  of  that  principle  for  their  political 
and  spiritual  growth  was,  indeed,  the  very  cause  of 
their  leaving  the  country  where  they  had  learned  it, 
but  could  not  enjoy  it  so  much  as  they  wished.  That 
native  and  familiar  growth  of  the  soil  of  England,  the 
popular  Assembly,  bore  transplanting  so  well  that  it 
soon  became  native  and  familiar  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  "  It  was  the  nature  of  Englishmen  to  assemble," 
says  Seeley.  "  Thus  the  old  historian  of  the  Colonies, 
Hutchinson,  writes  under  the  year  1619,  *  This  year  a 
House  of  Burgesses  broke  out  in  Virginia.'  "  J  Colonial 
legislature  and  administration,  whatever  developments 
they  might  assume  in  order  to  meet  local  needs,  were 
necessarily  inspired  by  the  principles  of  English  con- 
stitutional progress  and  guided  by  the  precedents  of 
English  law.  Religion,  moreover,  still  united  them  in 
sympathetic,  if  distant,  communion  with  congregations 
they  had  left  at  home ;  and  although  the  influence  of 
a  common  language  in  harmonizing  adverse  interests 
has  been  unduly  exaggerated,  yet  we  cannot  deny  to 
the  educated  Colonist  a  sense  of  community  with  all 
the  countrymen  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  nor  to  the 
remainder  a  feeling  of  spiritual  unity  with  all  those  who 
read  the  English  Bible.  The  bases  of  the  British  Empire 
abroad  are  undoubtedly  fixed  in  the  English  national 
tradition,  which  has  been  strong  enough  to  endure  even 
when  the  policy  of  England  herself  did  nothing  to 
encourage,  and  something  to  thwart,  its  permanence. 
The  British  Empire  is,  indeed,  the  "  Expansion  of 
England,"  as  Seeley  so  happily  expressed  it,  and  the 
remotest  settlements  of  her  people  are  connected  with 
her  by  that  continuity  of  tradition  which,  as  we  have 
shown  by  parallel  cases  at  home,  becomes  all  the  stronger 
and  richer  for  the  intermingling  with  it  of  the  special 
1  The  Expansion  of  England,  p.  67  (Macmillan,  1883). 
181 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

elements  of  the  new  environment.  The  growth  of  the 
British  Empire,  like  that  of  Great  Britain  herself,  is 
an  example  of  that  continuous  process  by  which  the 
feeling  of  organic  community  has  been  associated  with 
local  patriotism  in  the  creation  of  a  loyalty  at  once 
generously  Imperial  and  strongly  particularistic.  The 
Empire  is  still  what  the  Merchant  Adventurers  of 
England  were  in  the  sixteenth  century — "  the  English 
nation  beyond  the  sea."  1  The  principle  whose  opera- 
tion brought  union  among  warring  English  states  has 
had  a  vigorous  application  in  the  evolution  of  the 
British  Colonial  system,  in  which  we  have  seen  colonies 
peopled  by  different  races  forming  Unions  and  Con- 
federations within  the  still  greater  Union  and  Con- 
federation of  the  Empire  itself.  When  we  remember 
that  the  most  permanent  and  the  strongest  element  in 
the  English  political  tradition  is  the  principle  of  self- 
government,  it  ceases  to  be  a  paradox  that  the  extension 
of  self-government  in  our  Colonial  Empire  should  be 
the  most  efficient  cause  in  binding  the  Empire  and 
England  into  indissoluble  union.  And  it  is  a  perfectly 
natural  extension  of  the  same  principle  that  Colonies 
which  have  governed  themselves  as  parts  of  the  Empire 
should  demand  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  Empire 
of  which  they  are  parts;  as  representatives  of  the 
English  political  tradition  *  they  can  do  nothing  less. 
The  principle  which  gave  Barbadoes  self-government . 
at  the  outset  is  the  identical  principle  which  in  the 
natural  order  of  development  created  the  Imperial 
Conference  and,  aided  by  the  accentuation  of  Imperial 
unity  owing  to  the  common  danger  of  the  war,  has 
given  us  the  Imperial  War  Cabinet.  The  progress  of  the 
war  and  the  growth  of  Imperial  unity  will,  no  doubt,  lead 
to  a  gradual  extension  of  the  powers  of  the  Colonial  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Cabinet,  and  it  is  easy  to  foretell  that  the 
settlement  to  come  after  the  war  will  be  the  work,  not 
only  of  English  politicians,  but  of  Imperial  statesmen 
in  the  widest  sense.2  Finally,  one  may  surely  prophesy 

1  The  British  Empire,  Six  Lectures  by  Sir  Charles  Lucas,  K.C.B., 
K.C.M.G.  (Macmillan,  1915),  p.  18. 

8  This,  of  course,  was  written  before  the  end  of  the  war.  The 
broader  Colonial  and  Indian  representation  at  the  Peace  Conference 
has  still  further  illustrated  the  point. 

182 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

without  rashness  that  the  Empire  will  enjoy  self-govern- 
ment as  an  Empire  as  well  as  in  its  individual  elements, 
with  a  system  of  Imperial  taxation  for  Imperial  purposes, 
taxation  not  voted  by  the  British  Parliament,  but  by 
an  Imperial  Assembly.  A  fully  Imperial  Constitution 
will  inevitably  follow;  and  just  as  the  principle  of 
organic  continuity,  of  common  interest  has  been  the 
foundation  of  nationality  in  the  local  sense,  so  it  will 
attain  a  splendid  culmination  in  the  formation  of  an 
Imperial  nationality  in  which  all  the  various  interests 
of  the  separate  elements  will  be  harmonized  and  em- 
bodied. Again,  we  find  that  organic  continuity  of 
common  interest  is  the  basis  of  nationality,  of  nationality 
Imperial  as  well  as  local.  The  American  Colonies  were 
lost  to  the  British  Empire  owing  to  an  apparent  and 
temporary  divergence  of  interest  which  was  accentuated 
by  the  folly  of  English  politicians  into  a  permanent 
separation;  but  it  is  an  interesting  and  not  entirely 
academic  question  how  far  the  participation  of  the 
United  States  in  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies  was 
due,  not  only  to  the  sense  of  a  common  interest  in  the 
settlement  of  immediately  pressing  questions,  but  to 
the  endurance  of  that  English  tradition  of  freedom  in 
which  the  foundations  of  American  nationality  were  laid. 

So  far  as  the  Dependencies  are  concerned  our  adminis- 
tration has  been  more  or  less  successful,  according  to 
the  degree  in  which,  after  a  period  of  the  imposition  of 
the  strong  hand  of  conquest,  it  has  convinced  the  natives 
that  their  own  special  interests  can  be  best  safeguarded 
by  their  acquiescence  in  a  condition  of  government 
which  brings  them  into  the  sphere  of  interests  common 
to  the  Empire  as  a  whole.  In  India  the  methods  of  our 
administration  have  actually  created  that  sense  of 
national  unity  which  we  are  now  endeavouring  to  satisfy 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  convince  the  native  populations 
that  their  interests  are  indissolubly  bound  up  with  our 
own. 

That  the  Empire,  notwithstanding  the  infinite  variety 
of  the  racial  elements  which  compose  it  and  the  different 
types  of  national  character  which  it  exhibits,  has  been 
enduringly  built  upon  the  solid  ground  of  common 
interests,  common  dangers  and  common  hopes,  is  proved 

183 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

by  "  the  old  English  fortitude  and  love  of  freedom  " 
displayed  by  those  who,  having  founded  an  Empire, 
have  cemented  it  enduringly  by  the  ultimate  consecra- 
tion of  death'  in  defence  of  its  common  ideals. 


Note. — The  writer  has  adhered  to  the  use  of  the  term 
"Empire"  as  most  expressive  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
conception,  as  well  as  most  in  harmony  with  even 
democratic  precedent,  notwithstanding  the  criticism 
that  has  recently  been  directed  against  it  from  demo- 
cratic quarters.  Admitting  that  the  word  "  imperium  " 
originally  meant  the  military  power  conferred  upon  a 
Roman  magistrate,  and  that  in  the  time  of  Appian 
(A.D.  125)  the  military  title  of  Imperator  was  never 
conferred  upon  a  general  unless  10,000  of  the  enemy  had 
been  slain  (De  Bella  Civili,  II.  455),  we  may  yet  ask 
what  would  become  of  our  composite  English  speech 
if  we  were  forbidden  to  use  words  except  in  the  meaning 
they  had  in  the  language  from  which  we  received  them. 
Besides,  that  the  term  "  Commonwealth,"  preferred 
by  some,  is  not  devoid  of  similar  bloodthirsty  associa- 
tions the  pages  of  Livy,  Guicciardini  and  Motley  bear 
witness.  Even  under  our  own  "  Commonwealth " 
more  than  half  the  national  revenue  was  spent  upon  the 
Navy  !  But  these  objections  would  not  tell  against  the 
word  "  Commonwealth  "  any  more  than  they  do  against 
the  word  "  Empire."  The  fact  is  that  these  two  words 
denote  quite  different  conceptions  in  our  recognized  and 
familiar  speech,  and  have  done  so  for  centuries.  For 
an  early  use  of  the  term  "  Empire  "  we  can  refer  to  the 
famous  Statute  of  Henry  VIII.  decreeing  that  "this 
Realm  of  England  is  an  Empire."  This  Act  was  one 
of  the  weapons  welded  by  the  Tudors  in  the  final  stages 
of  the  long  struggle  waged  by  English  nationality  against 
ecclesiastical  Universalisni,  and  was  specially  directed 
against  the  payment  of  dues  to  the  See  of  Rome.  Its 
assertion  of  the  Imperial  character  of  the  English 
Realm  was  in  reality  a  Declaration  of  Independence, 
meaning,  as  Blackstone  said,  that  "  our  King  is  equally 
sovereign  and  independent  within  these  his  dominions 

184 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

as  any  Emperor  is  in  his  Empire." x — Milton  and 
Burke  supply  still  more  democratic  examples.  Witness, 
among  others,  the  great  passage  in  the  Reformation  in 
England :  "  O  Thou  that,  after  the  impetuous  rage  of 
five  bloody  inundatibns  and  the  succeeding  sword  of 
intestine  war  .  .  .  didst  build  up  this  Brittanic  Empire 
to  a  glorious  and  enviable  height,  with  all  her  daughter 
islands  about  her,  stay  us  in  this  felicity,"  etc.  And 
elsewhere,  in  allusion  to  Cromwell  (although  in  this  case 
he  does  it  in  Latin),  he  says  :  "  The  whole  surface  of  the 
British  Empire  has  been  the  witness  of  his  exploits."  2 
If  Milton,  the  Republican,  who  knows,  moreover,  the 
noble  uses  of  the  word  "  Commonwealth,"  can  admir- 
ingly describe  "  England  and  her  daughter  islands  "  as 
an  Empire,  we  less  vigorous  democrats  need  surely 
feel  only  pride  in  applying  the  great  name  to  an  infinitely 
more  magnificent  creation.  Burke  is  equally  emphatic. 
In  his  truly  democratic  defence  of  the  action  of  America 
(Speech  on  American  Taxation,  April  19, 1774),  he  says  : 
"  The  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  sits  at  the  head  of 
her  extensive  Empire  in  two  capacities  :  one  as  the 
local  legislature  of  this  island;  the  other,  and  I  think 
her  nobler  capacity,  is  what  I  call  her  Imperial  character," 
etc.  Elsewhere  in  the  same  speech  he  uses  the  word, 
clearly  without  any  militaristic  suggestion  :  "  By  such 
management,  by  the  irresistible  operation  of  feeble 
counsels,  so  paltry  a  sum  as  Threepence  in  the  eyes 
of  a  financier,  so  insignificant  an  article  as  Tea  in  the 
eyes  of  a  philosopher,  have  shaken  the  pillars  of  a 
Commercial  Empire  that  circled  the  whole  globe." 

1  Lucas,  The  British  Empire.     Intro :  p.  3,  "  Empire  denoted  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  independence  of  England." 

2  "  Defensio  secunda  pro  populo  Anglicano." 


185 


CHAPTER  XI 

Social  and  economic  Aspects  of  the  Development  of  English  Nationality 
since  the  Conquest — The  Effects  of  Alien  Immigration  on  (1)  the 
Expansion  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  (2)  the  Rise  and  Growth  of 
Towns,  (3)  the  Substitution  of  the  Cash-nexus  for  natural  Exchange 
— The  Breaking-up  of  Feudalism  as  an  economic  Structure  in  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Centuries — Alien  Immigration  since 
that  Period  :  its  Influence  upon  modern  commercial  and  political 
Institutions — The  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  the 
Huguenot  Immigration — The  progressive  Amalgamation  of  Aliens 
with  the  native  Population :  their  Acceptance  of  the  English 
national  Tradition — The  Naturalization  of  Aliens — The  Necessity 
for  systematic  Education  in  Patriotism. 

NOT  by  commingling  of  blood,  therefore,  but  by  the 
amalgamation  of  different  traditional  cultures  was  the 
political  union  of  the  British  Empire  effected.  We  have 
attained  our  present  organized  participation  in  the 
hegemony  of  the  world,  not  by  the  blind  impulsion  of 
racial  forces,  inevitably  destined  to  mastery  over  other 
peoples  not  so  favourably  equipped  with  the  biological 
apparatus  of  universal  dominion,  but  by  the  play  and 
interplay  of  the  natural  human  mind  and  the  forces 
which  surrounded  it  on  British  soil.  The  consequent 
growth  of  national  consciousness  has  involved  the 
formation  of  a  national  conscience  which  has  brought 
nature  and  circumstance  more  and  more  constantly 
under  the  direction  of  the  moral  intelligence  of  the 
community;  and  the  nation  has  thus  attained  such  a 
degree  of  moral  culture  that  it  no  more  obeys  the  crude 
and  ferocious  dictates  of  physical  biology  in  the  national 
and  international  spheres  than  does  the  educated 
individual  citizen  in  his  personal  and  social  life.  The 
course  of  our  national  development  has  so  run,  or  has 
been  so  guided,  that  the  national  brain  and  the  national 
conscience — themselves,  of  course,  ultimately  a  product 
of  biological  evolution — have  been  enabled,  with  some 
effect,  if  not  so  completely  as  in  the  sphere  of  personal 

186 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

conduct,  to  check  the  savage  and  selfish  impulses  of  the 
forces  to  which  they  owe  their  birth. 

And  this  progress  of  political  development  has  been 
accompanied  by  social  development  on  similar  lines. 
Everywhere  we  perceive  new  social  conditions  issuing 
from  the  intermingling  of  communal  environments 
originally  distinct  from  each  other,  often  hostile  to 
each  other.  A  good  many  of  our  "  characteristically 
English  "  institutions,  so  far  from  being  the  product 
of  specialized  "  racial  "  powers,  are  due,  directly  or 
indirectly,  to  the  importation  of  alien  elements  and 
their  incorporation  into  the  social  organism  of  the 
nation.  To  develop  at  any  length  the  story  of  our  social 
culture  in  this  direction  is  manifestly  one  of  those  many 
tempting  tasks  which  the  writer,  in  proportion  with 
his  general  scheme,  must  decline;  but  he  must  run  the 
risk  of  too  great  copiousness  of  illustration  at  least 
to  the  extent  of  showing  broadly  how  inextricably 
interwoven  with  the  social  and  industrial  progress  of 
Britain  has  been  the  incessant  introduction  of  new  alien 
materials  into  the  national  fabric.  Dr.  Cunningham, 
whose  book  on  Alien  Immigrants  to  England  makes  it 
possible  for  the  first  time  to  take  a  general  conspectus 
of  the  whole  of  the  evidence  in  a  concise  and  connected 
story,  frankly  jettisons  the  racial  hypothesis  in  the 
practical  elucidation  of  his  subject;  1  although  he  pays 
lip-service  to  it  in  a  manner  which  is  all  the  more 
interesting  and  significant  from  its  very  hesitation. 
"  There  are,"  he  says,  "  natural  aptitudes  and  dis- 
positions,— like  the  love  of  the  sea, — or  formed  habits 
of  frugality  and  industry,  which  may,  perhaps,  be 
transmitted  as  the  races  mingle. — The  readiness  with 
which  Englishmen  adapt  themselves  to  the  conditions 
of  life  in  all  parts  of  the  world  may  possibly  be  con- 
nected with  the  curious  admixture  in  the  stock  from 
which  they  have  sprung.  But  these  effects  are  not  easy 
to  trace  definitely ;  it  is  hard  to  establish  any  conclusive 
proof  which  shall  enable  us  to  derive  this  or  that  national 
quality  from  any  special  strain  of  alien  blood.  Such 
speculations  may  interest  the  anthropologist,  but  they 

1  Alien  Immigrants  to  England,  by  W.  Cunningham,  D.D.  (Swan 
Sonnenschein  &  Co.,|Ltd.,  1897.     "  Social  England  "  Series.) 

187 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

hardly  fall  within  the  province  of  the  historian.'*  And 
he  adds  :  "  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  whole 
civilization  of  the  globe  is  one;  the  marked  steps  in 
invention  and  discovery  have  been  taken  once  for  all, 
and  then  have  been  followed  in  one  region  after  another. 
— The  principal  method  by  which  the  culture,  thus 
gradually  attained,  has  been  diffused  over  the  globe  has 
been  by  migration."  1  The  first  portion  of  this  passage 
does  not  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  maritime 
tribes  lose  their  love  and  mastery  of  the  sea  when  the 
environment  has  not  kept  these  qualities  in  play — as  we 
have  seen  was  the  case  with  the  Normans,  and  the  inland 
English  in  Alfred's  time ;  or  the  fact  that  the  quality  of 
adaptivenessto  varietiesof  physical  and  social  conditions, 
claimed  as  due  to  the  mixed  racial  origin  of  the  British,  has 
also  been  imputed  to  the  particular  racial  qualifications 
of  the  "  purer  "  Norman  stock.  The  latter  part  of  the 
quotation,  however,  corroborates  the  view  adopted  by 
the  writer  in  Chapter  II.  of  this  book,  that  all  races  are 
equipped  by  Nature  with  capacities  equally  receptive  to 
all  the  processes  of  civilization,  and  that  their  cultural 
progress  depends  upon  the  extension  of  their  environ- 
ment to  include  streams  of  inspiration  flowing  from 
alien  sources.  And  upon  this  foundation  Dr.  Cunning- 
ham proceeds  to  construct  one  of  the  most  pleasing  and 
effective  works  ever  elaborated  on  a  sociological  question, 
especially  in  the  sphere  of  Industrial  Economics,  and 
the  writer  gratefully  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  so 
able  an  historian  for  many  facts  and  illustrations  whose 
absence  would  render  this  chapter  halting  and  incomplete. 
With  the  purely  literary  aspect  of  our  social  development, 
if  there  can  be  a  purely  literary  aspect  of  such  a  matter, 
it  is  proposed  to  deal  at  a  subsequent  stage. 

Those   who   imagine    that   the   composition    of   the 

English  people  was  practically  settled  at  the  Norman 

Conquest  will  be  surprised  at  the  never-ceasing  effect 

which  has  been  produced  upon  our  social  and  industrial 

life  by  the  introduction  of  alien  elements  subsequent 

to  that  event.     During  the  first  century  of  the  Norman 

regime  hosts  of  foreign  mercenaries,  especially  Flemings, 

who  came  here  to  take  part  in  the  royal  and  baronial 

1  Dr.  Cunningham,  Alien  Immigrants,  Intro,,  pp.  7-8. 

188 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

.- 

wars — notoriously  in  the  reign  of  Stephen — settled 
down  as  subordinate  cultivators  of  the  soil  and  as 
masons  employed  in  the  construction  of  military  works, 
commingling  with  the  lower  strata  of  the  English 
population,  teaching  them  their  ways  and  being  taught 
in  return.  The  elusiveness  of  race  as  a  factor  in  the 
development  of  a  national  patriotism  is  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  the  Flemish  settlement  made  in  Pembroke- 
shire by  Henry  I.  was  known  by  the  title  of  "  Little 
England"  and  the  warlike  energy  of  these  people  not 
only  checked  the  insurrections  of  Wales  against  the 
English  kings,  but  their  knowledge  of  agriculture  and 
manufactures  helped  more  thoroughly  to  anglicize  that 
part  of  the  country  than  their  military  effectiveness. 
A  similar  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  the  fact  that 
the  descendants  of  a  large  body  of  Flemish  settlers 
whom  Henry  II.  drove  out  of  England  to  the  banks  of 
the  Clyde  became  a  constituent  element  of  the  Scottish 
people  and  shared  its  national  fortunes.  Incidentally 
we  may  observe  that  the  same  aspect  of  the  questions 
of  race  and  environment  in  their  relationship  to  nation- 
ality is  emphasized  when  we  remember  the  part  played 
by  great  Norman  families,  who  emigrated  from  England 
to  Scotland  at  this  period.  The  southern  part  of  the 
kingdom  of  Scotland  was  practically  English  in  speech 
and  civilization,  the  Welsh  of  Strathclyde  and  the  Picts 
of  Fife  having  been  gradually  assimilated  by  the  English 
Northumbrians  of  the  Lothians,  who  had  settled  there 
in  the  sixth  century.  Celtic  culture,  such  as  it  was, 
still  prevailed  in  the  Highlands,  and  both  traditions 
showed  themselves  capable  of  influencing  the  character 
and  outlook  of  the  Normans  whom  they  received  into 
their  midst.  The  Stuarts,  the  Balliols,  the  Cummings, 
the  Bruces  and  the  Wallaces,  and  many  other  famous 
Norman  families,  contributed  their  share  to  mould 
Scottish  nationality  as  independent  of  English ;  while 
others,  like  the  Gordons  and  Frasers,  became  pure 
chiefs  of  Gaelic  clans  and  lost  all  ostensible  trace  of 
either  Norman  or  English  traditions.  These  and  their 
descendants  were  Scottish  of  the  Scots,  just  as  the 
Geraldines  and  the  Desmonds,  the  Arundels  and  the 
Carews,  the  Condons  and  the  Courcies,  the  Barretts  and 

189 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

ti- 
the Savages,  disappeared  as  Normans  in  Ireland,  to  be 
merged  in  the  native  population  and,  in  defiance  of  their 
"  splendid  race,"  to  become  ipsis  Hibernis  Hiberniores. 

Into  England  herself,  meanwhile,  the  flood  of  alien 
merchants  and  artizans  had  continued  to  pour.  Before 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  fullers  and  weavers  from 
abroad  were  centred  in  various  towns,  and  although 
they  were  long  organized  in  separate  communities,  a 
knowledge  of  human  nature  prevents  us  from  supposing 
that  they  lived  in  entire  social  isolation  from  the  native 
inhabitants  of  the  same  neighbourhoods.  The  inter- 
mingling of  French  and  English  in  towns,  castles  and 
cities,  their  intermarriages  and  their  common  commercial 
activities,  are  noted  by  Ordericus  Vitalis  as  a  feature  of 
social  life  in  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
are  brought  into  evidence  by  many  a  borough  Survey 
of  that  period.  This  mixing  together  of  the  once  alien 
elements  of  English  and  Norman  would  tend  to  break 
down  the  barriers  between  Normans  and  English  on 
the  one  hand,  and  alien  immigrants  to  their  common 
country  on  the  other.  The  great  monastic  corporations 
of  the  Benedictines  and  Cistercians,  each  with  a  strong 
international  organization,  introduced  foreign  workmen, 
both  lay  and  clerical,  of  various  arts  and  capacities, 
some  of  whom  imprinted  characteristics  of  Norman 
ecclesiastical  architecture  upon  the  dwellings  of  the 
common  people.  The  economic  conditions  springing 
out  of  the  national  industry  of  the  manorial  system  of 
agriculture  made  the  households  of  the  great  feudal 
magnates,  the  bishops  and  the  barons,  travelling 
caravanserais  of  social  influence,  radiating  new  kinds 
of  foreign  manners  and  foreign  workmanship  in  the 
neighbourhoods  of  their  various  residences. 

The  development  of  trading,  which  was  encouraged 
by  the  Continental  relationships  of  the  feudal  barons 
and  ecclesiastics,  and  by  the  failure  of  the  industrial 
system  of  the  country  to  supply  the  "demands  of  a 
cultivated  and  powerful  aristocracy,  is  equally  involved 
with  the  spread  of  alien  influences.  Bills  of  Exchange 
and  Letters  of  Credit  were  adopted  from  the  practice 
of  foreign  merchants  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
calling  in  this  country.  The  method  of  weighing  by 

190 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

avoirdupois  was  a  system  thought  to  have  been  adopted 
from  the  Moors  and  Arabs  by  Spanish  merchants,  who, 
at  any  rate,  introduced  it  into  England.  "  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note,"  says  Dr.  Cunningham,  "  that  the  com- 
plications which  distinguish  our  country  from  those 
which  have  adopted  the  decimal  system  are  chiefly 
due  to  the  fact  that  we  have  adhered  to  various  com- 
peting systems  which  were  originally  introduced  from 
abroad  "  ;  and  he  states  elsewhere  that  "  the  foundations 
of  our  fiscal  and  administrative  system  had  been  already 
laid  by  aliens ;  and,  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  they  did  not  a  little  to  prepare  for  our  coming 
industrial  greatness."  l  Jews — never  allowed  at  that 
time  to  become  English,  as  they  are  now — Lombards, 
Flemings  and  Florentines  played  the  part  of  bankers  to 
English  kings  and  English  people.  The  influence  which, 
in  this  capacity,  they  brought  to  bear  upon  the  settlement 
of  English  constitutional  questions  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  even  so  English  a  king  as  Edward  III. 
dispensed  with  the  financial  assistance  of  Parliament  by 
means  of  loans  from  alien  merchants,  a  precedent  not 
unfollowed  in  several  later  political  crises. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  native  jealousy 
of  the  foreigner,  always  latent,  at  any  rate,  if  not  always 
exhibited,  and  never  eliminated  even  under  the  com- 
peting stimulus  of  religious  and  political  sympathy, 
was  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  very  means  by  which 
the  social  relationships  of  the  English  and  their  foreign 
mercantile  visitors  were  more  closely  interwoven.  The 
civic  authorities  of  London  at  that  time  objected  to  the 
Gascon  merchants  living  in  separate  households  of  their 
own,  and  in  the  London  Charter  of  1327  it  was  expressly 
stipulated  that  every  foreign  merchant  should  be 
domiciled  with  an  English  host.  The  ordinary  results 
of  daily  domestic  contiguity  no  doubt  operated  to 
dissolve  the  jealousy  which  had  insisted  upon  the 
arrangement.  This  practice  still  existed  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  was  by  no  means  restricted  to  London, 
where,  however,  it  was  not  universally  applied,  Genoese 
and  Hanse  merchants  being  exempted  from  its  operation. 

This  exemption  probably  points  to  the  strong  position 
1  Alien  Immigrants,  pp.  62,  68. 
191 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

held  in  the  city  by  these  merchants,  owing  to  their 
numbers  and  financial  importance.  The  Genoese,  at 
any  rate,  exercised  a  far-reaching  influence  upon  our 
commercial  and  general  life,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
Venetian  galleys  were  pouring  all  the  luxurious  wealth 
of  the  East  into  England,  where  its  effect  upon  the 
manners  and  habits  of  the  people  was  noted  by  a 
contemporary  satirist,  who  inveighs  against  "  the  great 
galleys  of  Venice  and  Florence,"  all  laden  with — 

"  Apes  and  japes  and  marmoisettea  be-tailed, 
Trifles,  trifles  that  little  have  availed  : 
And  things  with  which  they  featly  blear  our  eye 
With  thinges  not  enduring  that  we  buy."  * 

Italian  silks  and  silversmiths'  work  were  in  great  demand 
in  England.  In  1409  there  was  so  much  Venetian 
coinage  in  circulation  in  London  that  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment prohibited  its  use.  Even  the  bows  which  helped 
to  win  our  victory  at  Agincourt  ("  the  bow  that  was 
made  in  England,"  as  the  popular  patriotic  song  has  it) 
were  landed  at  Southampton  from  Venetian  galleys. 
While  Italy  gave  us  these  things — and  much  else,  as 
we  shall  recall  in  a  following  chapter — we  gave  her  what 
she  wanted,  condottieri  like  Cook  and  Hawkwood — 
Hawkwood,  who  was  actually  buried  in  the  Cathedral 
at  Florence. 

The  effect  which  all  this  foreign  intercourse  had  in 
stimulating  the  competition  of  English  merchants  and 
introducing  new  methods  of  production  and  distribution 
cannot  be  measured,  but  it  cannot  be  estimated  too 
highly.  The  industrial  policy  of  Edward  III.,  who 
"  may  be  said  to  have  taken  the  first  steps  to  render 
this  country  the  workshop  of  the  world,"  encouraged 
foreigners,  and  particularly  Flemish  weavers,  to  settle  in 
every  part  of  the  country,  where  they  "  mingled  with  the 
rest,  of  the  community,  and  planted  the  skill  which  they 
themselves  possessed."  2  If  the  Flemings  are  properly 
credited  with  being  the  pioneers  of  capitalistic  production 
in  England,  their  influence  for  good  or  ill  has  permeated 
every  part  of  our  industrial  and  social  system. 

1  "  Libelle  of  Englyshe  Polycye,"  in  Political  Songs  ("  Rolls  "  Series), 
II.  73  (Dr.  Cunningham,  p.  96). 
8  Cunningham,  pp.  101,  105. 

192 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

The  most  direct  sphere  of  the  operation  of  these  alien 
commercial  influences  was,  of  course,  the  towns,  in 
which  the  immigrants  congregated  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  exchange.  Although  the  town  was,  in  a 
certain  sense,  an  offshoot  of  the  Feudal  System,  yet  the 
influences  which  developed  the  borough  in  mediaeval 
times  were  derived  from  many  other  sources.  As  we 
have  already  seen,  there  is  very  little  connexion  by 
historical  continuity  between  the  municipium  of  Roman 
Britain  and  the  modern  town  or  city,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  case  with  the  towns  of  European  countries 
more  fully  Romanized  than  was  the  case  with  Britain. 
The  Saxons  left  most  of  the  Roman  towns  severely 
alone,  and  their  once  vigorous  life  sank  into  desolation 
and  neglect;  although  their  walls,  crumbling  with  the 
accumulated  debris  of  six  centuries,  were  still  capable 
of  restoration  and  fortification  as  a  means  of  con- 
centrated defence  against  the  Danes.  Nor  did  the  Saxon 
township  itself,  even  when  separated  from  the  rest  of 
the  village  community  and  endowed  with  a  hundred 
court  of  its  own,  contain  many  hints  of  the  future 
greatness  of  the  English  boroughs  and  cities.  Centres 
of  considerable  population  certainly  arose  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  either  as  emporiums  for  a  special  local 
trade,  or  as  settlements  round  a  castle  or  abbey,  or  as 
markets  of  spontaneous  growth  at  convenient  positions 
for  the  exchange  of  natural  commodities  in  general. 
But  even  so,  the  town  was  a  mere  territorial  appanage 
of  some  great  manorial  lord,  some  ealdorman  or  thegn. 
And  this  position  of  affairs  was  crystallized  by  the 
feudalism  of  the  Norman  Conquest — crystallized  at 
least  in  theory,  inasmuch  as  while  the  English  towns 
were  thus  ostensibly  brought  to  the  same  state  of  feudal 
dependence  as  the  Continental  towns  had  been,  the  same 
principle  of  detachment  which  had  already  commenced 
to  free  the  towns  of  Italy  and  France  and  Spain  from 
feudal  domination  began  to  operate  also  in  England 
with  the  introduction  of  the  Feudal  System.  The  evil 
suggested  and  compelled  its  own  remedy,  although  in 
this  case,  too,  the  remedy  was  adopted  under  the 
influence  of  foreign  examples.  It  was  the  rise  of  com- 
merce in  Italy  that  enabled  civil  communities — which 
o  193 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

there,  perhaps,  had  never  lost  all  traces  of  Roman 
municipal  organization — to  grow  so  strong  in  population 
and  in  wealth  that  they  were  powerful  enough  to  ask, 
and  rich  enough  to  buy,  immunities  from  the  feudal 
burdens  which  had  hitherto  been  imposed  upon  them 
by  the  German  ehiperors  and  their  tenants-in -chief. 
Before  the  Norman  conquest  of  England  the  practice 
had  extended  to  France,  where  Louis  VI.  first  conferred 
"  Charters  of  Community,"  which  freed  the  towns  from 
feudal  claims,  allowing  them  to  defend  themselves  with 
their  own  arms  and  elect  their  own  councils  and 
municipal  magistrates.  By  the  thirteenth  century 
most  of  the  towns  in  France  were  free  corporations, 
which  had  bought  their  liberties  with  a  price  paid  to 
crusading  barons  and  knights  in  want  of  money  to 
equip  their  sanctified  military  expeditions.  The  same 
national  check  to  the  feudal  spirit  was  in  operation  in 
England  almost  immediately  after  the  Conquest.  The 
numerous  castles  built  for  purposes  of  military  repression 
could  not  always  be  situated  upon  estates  capable  of 
satisfying  all  the  necessities  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  and 
his  household ;  and  to  create  a  market  was  to  secure  the 
permanent  residence  of  a  body  of  traders  whose  corporate 
consciousness  was  developed  by  their  common  pro- 
tection from  feudal  exactions  in  return  for  their  common 
commercial  usefulness.  The  creation  of  a  close  spirit 
of  co-operation  and  community  of  interest  gives  a  new 
character  to  these  anti-feudal  offshoots  of  the  Feudal 
System,  and  they  are  soon  able  to  demand,  and  (at  a 
price)  obtain,  concessions  from  the  feudal  magnate 
after  the  manner  of  the  burghers  of  Continental  towns ; 
and  all  remnants  of  feudal  servitude  finally  dropped 
through  natural  decay  or  were  commuted  for  money 
payments.  "  During  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  years  after 
the  Conquest,  the  citizens  and  burgesses  were  enabled 
to  extort,  from  the  pecuniary  necessities  of  the  kings, 
charters  of  liberties  varying  greatly  in  extent,  but  all 
conceding  more  or  less  of  self-government  through  the 
medium  of  elected  and  representative  magistrates."  x 

1  English  Constitutional  History,  by  Thomas  Pitt  Taswell-Langmead, 
B.C.L.  (Stevens  &  Haynes,  1886),  p.  237.  See  also  Sir  Stanley  Leathes, 
pp.  215-17. 

194  * 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

That  the  presence  and  the  activities  of  the  foreign 
merchants  settled  in  the  various  towns  operated  to 
strengthen  and  extend  the  influence  of  the  citizens  as 
against  the  barons  is  a  natural  conclusion  from  the  facts 
already  enumerated,  and  from  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
the  foreign  trade  of  the  country  and  nearly  all  the 
capital  were  in  their  hands.  But  the  power  and 
importance  of  the  towns  were  further  increased  by  the 
rise  of  the  merchant -guilds,  whose  great  development  in 
England  at  this  time  is  doubtless  due  to  the  inspiration 
and  example  of  the  foreign  merchants,  although  here, 
too,  there  is  a  question  whether  the  institution  itself 
cannot  be  traced  to  English  origins.  Perhaps  there  is 
something  like  general  agreement  in  the  view  that  the 
ceapmannes-gild — the  chapman's  guild,  the  merchant's 
union — furnished  a  native  hint  which  was  subsequently 
expanded  and  strengthened  by  alien  influence.  Even 
before  the  Conquest  the  merchant-guild  was  tending  to 
monopolize  the  civic  administration — to  become,  inrfact, 
the  governing  body  of  the  town — a  process  which  was 
more  fully  established  after  the  Conquest.  "  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.,"  says  Stubbs,  "  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  possession  of  a  merchant-guild  had 
become  the  sign  and  token  of  municipal  independence. 
It  is  recognized  by  Glanvill  as  identical  with  the  Com- 
muna  of  the  privileged  towns,  the  municipal  corpora- 
tion of  the  later  age."  J  If  the  trade-guild  became 
finally  identified  with  the  Communa,  we  have  indubitable 
evidence  of  foreign  influence  in  securing  the  amalgama- 
tion. The  foreign  form  of  the  association — which  is 
thought,  with  some  reason,  to  trace  backward  to  the 
Roman  "  collegia  "  of  merchants — included  the  whole 
of  the  burgesses  in  a  "  Commune,"  all  of  them  being 
bound  by  an  oath  to  co-operate  on  certain  agreed  lines 
for  the  welfare  of  the  town.  The  town  of  Rouen,  for 
example,  was  administered  in  this  way,  under  "  un 
Maire,  douze  echevins,  douze  conseillers,  et  soixante- 
quinze  pairs,"  and  it  was  upon  this  analogy  that,  so 
early  as  the  reign  of  Richard  I.,  the  sworn  "  Commune  " 
was  established  in  London,  with  a  mayor  and  an  alder- 
manic  council  of  twenty-four. 

1  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  Vol.  L  p.  418. 
195 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Apart  from  the  merchant-guild  as  governing  body 
of  the  whole  borough,  there  were  numerous  guilds  for 
particular  trades,  which  were  adopted  here  under  the 
influence  of  Flemish  weavers  who  had  long  been  familiar 
with  them  on  the  Continent.  There  was,  indeed, 
friction  between  the  borough-communes  and  the  separate 
trade-guilds,  probably  due  to  the  foreign  element  in 
the  private  associations,  whose  interests  were  not  yet 
felt  as  fully  identical  with  those  of  the  town  in  which 
they  resided ;  but  individual  foreigners  were  frequently 
admitted  into  the  bo  rough -guilds.  Early  in  the  twelfth 
century  Coventry  obtained  the  power  to  elect  outsiders 
as  "  comburgenses,"  and  many  towns  which  possessed 
a  merchant-guild  elected  aliens  to  share  their  mercantile 
rights,  with  the  natural  result  that  they  and  their 
families  became  settled  and  loyal  members  of  the  civic 
community. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  effect  of  the  foreign 
elements  upon  the  English  mercantile  movement,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  mercantile  movement  as  a 
whole  ended  in  the  creation  of  a  class  of  society  which, 
separated  as  its  civic  components  were  by  local  situation, 
was  united  in  a  common  sphere  of  interest  born  of 
common  occupations  and  a  common  outlook  upon  the 
practical  issues  of  their  life.  As  Guizot  remarks  in  the 
parallel  case  of  the  Frejich  towns  :  "  Notwithstanding 
that  all  remained  local,  a  new  and  general  class  was 
created  by  the  enfranchisement.  No  coalition  had 
existed  between  the  citizens;  they  had  as  a  class  no 
common  and  public  existence.  But  the  country  was 
filled  with  men  in  the  same  situation,  having  the  same 
interests  and  the  same  manners,  between  whom  a 
certain  bond  and  unity  could  not  fail  of  being  gradually 
established,  which  should  give  rise  to  the  bourgeoisie. 
The  formation  of  a  great  social  class,  the  bourgeoisie, 
was  the  necessary  result  of  the  local  enfranchisement 
of  the  burghers."  *•  In  England  the  corresponding 
class  which  was  then  formed  has,  by  its  early  and 
continuous  representation  in  Parliament,  been  enabled, 
although  not  in  every  case  entirely  subordinating  its 

1  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization,  translated  by  W.  Hazlitt  (D.  Bogue, 
1846.  The  "  Bohn  "  Series),  Vol.  I.  p.  137. 

196 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

interests  as  a  class  to  those  of  the  nation  at  large,  to 
play  a  great  part  in  the  development  of  a  national 
patriotism.  The  history  of  its  rise  and  progress  forcibly 
illustrates  the  process  by  which  newer  spheres  of 
common  interest  are  formed  out  of  a  blended  variety 
of  diverse  and  partial  interests,  themselves  in  turn  to 
blend  with  other  spheres  of  interest  in  a  more  generous 
and  comprehensive  atmosphere. 

But  no  account  of  foreign  influences  upon  society  in 
England  would  be  complete,  even  as  a  general  sketch, 
which  failed  to  note  the  effect  which  the  growth  .of 
commercial  industrialism,  stimulated  as  it  was  from 
alien  sources,  had  upon  the  manorial  system  of  industry, 
which  had  been  systematically  feudalized  by  the 
organizing  skill  of  the  Norman  lawyers. 

The  village  community  was,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
a  perfectly  natural  and  spontaneous  growth  of  social 
co-operation  to  meet  the  needs  of  primitive  peoples 
dependent  upon  agricultural  and  pastoral  produce; 
but  in  the  form  of  the  manor,  which  it  had  assumed  in 
England  even  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  Norman 
jurists,  especially  when  they,  too,  responded  to  the 
highly  systematized  influence  of  Roman  law,  had 
endeavoured  to  crystallize  it  into  a  hard-and-fast  scheme 
of  precedent  and  practice,  and  thus  to  stereotype  the 
naturally  pliant  form  of  social  evolution.  These  con- 
scious efforts  at  crystallization  are  nearly  always  the 
sign  of  imminent  decadence,  being  probably  due  to  a 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  institution  t.o  which 
they  are  applied  no  longer  corresponds  to  the  general 
requirements  of  the  community,  though  satisfactory 
enough  to  a  particular  class.  As  population  increased, 
both  by  the  growth  of  the  native  inhabitants  and  by 
the  immigration  of  foreigners,  social  groups  arose  for 
whom  there  could  eventually  be  found  no  place  in  the 
manorial  system.  Craftsmen  and  artizans  increased, 
who  could  not  all  be  employed  either  by  the  lord  or  his 
tenants.  Moreover,  the  method  of  open-field  cultiva- 
tion, which  was  of  the  very  essence  of  the  village  com- 
munity with  its  historic  conception  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  whole  body  of  its  cultivators  over  any  of  its 
individual  members,  opposed  an  inconvenient  and  old- 

197 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

fashioned  barrier  to  the  development  of  agriculture 
by  improved  and  enlightened  efforts.  The  sacred 
phrase  "  cum  consuetudinibus  villae  " — "  in  accordance 
with  the  customs  of  the  manor  " — was  no  less  an  incubus 
upon  progress  than  a  guarantee  of  social  justice.  And 
again,  questions  of  practical  convenience  early  began  to 
render  the  system  of  payment  in  kind  obsolete  as  a 
means  of  exchange.  Bread  made  on  the  feudal  lord's 
provincial  manor  was  not  always  in  excellent  condition 
for  the  lord's  consumption  at  his  palace  in  Westminster, 
and  it  was  much  more  convenient  to  have  a  supply  of 
ready  money  to  buy  new  bread  at  the  nearest  market. 
There  was  occasional  resort  to  the  expedient  of  ex- 
changing manors  at  a  distance  for  others  nearer  to 
where  they  were  wanted;  an  arrangement  whose 
difficulty  can  only  have  emphasized  the  trouble  it  was 
designed  to  ameliorate.  The  arrangement,  again,  by 
which  the  tenant  worked  on  the  lord's  demesne  or 
personal  estate,  the  home-farm,  on  certain  fixed  days 
in  the  year,  was  liable  to  be  upset  by  bad  weather  or 
the  occurrence  of  a  Church  festival.  These  and  many 
other  inconveniences  operated  to  destroy  rent  not  only 
in  kind  but  in  labour  also.  The  system  of  money 
payments  gradually  established  itself  as  a  regular 
means  of  discharging  feudal  burdens,  sometimes  con- 
comitantly  with  the  old  labour  dues.  "  Editha,"  for 
example,  whoever  she  may  have,  ,been,  "  tenet  unum 
mesuagium  et  unam  croftam  pro  6d.,  et  fert  aquam 
falcatoribus."  But  in  the  very  heart  of  the  feudal 
period,  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  we  find 
that  the  landlord's  estimate  of  his  rent,  although  first 
calculated  in  kind,  is^then  estimated  at  its  value  in 
money.  In  the  fourteenth  century  money  rentals  are  the 
rule,  and  their  general  acceptance  is  not  long  delayed.1 

The  economic  and  social  effects  of  this  substitution 
are  incalculable.  A  villain  who  could  pay  his  lord  the 
halfpenny  a  day  which  he  was  willing  to  accept  in  lieu 
of  labour  was  at  once  placed  in  a  position  to  raise 
himself  above  his  hitherto  servile  condition.  He  was 
differentiated  in  practice  from  the  ordinary  villain  who 

1  Villainage  in  England,  by  Dr.  Paul  Vinogradoff  (Clarendon  Press, 
1892),  Chap.  III.  Dr.  Vinogradoff  has  examined  this  English  question 
with  what  we  must  call,  in  spite  of  his  name,  characteristically  English 
thoroughness. 

198 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

still  worked  under  the  superintendence  of  the  lord's 
steward.  He  became  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a 
free  man,  and  could  transport  himself  whither  his 
means  would  allow  him ;  could  offer  his  services  to  any 
of  the  numerous  landlords  who  by  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  had  to  cultivate  their  demesnes  on 
paid  labour;  could  even  become  a  burgess  if  he  resided 
in  a  borough  for  a  year  and  paid  his  civic  dues  with  the 
rest.  He  could  enter  a  merchant-guild,  and  become 
a  successful  and  wealthy  trader  to  foreign  parts,  to 
Denmark,  Flanders  and  Scotland.  If  he  remained  a 
"  rusticus  "  and  had  ambitions  above  free  labour  he 
might  rise  to  be  a  free  tenant,  and  in  either  capacity 
found  himself  living  in  a  community  which,  though 
still  feudal  in  legal  theory,  was  no  longer  so  in 
practice. 

Nor  was  the  substitution  of  money  rent  for  service  less 
effective  in  modifying  the  condition  and  the  status  of 
the  great  class  of  tenants  who  held  of  the  barons  as 
military  knights  and  who   bought  themselves  out  of 
this  obligation  by  money  payments.     The  rise  of  the 
woollen  trade  with   Flanders  in   the  twelfth  century 
stimulated   sheep-farming  on   a   large   scale,    a»d   the 
consequent  accumulation  of  funds  in  the  hands  of  this 
class  of  feudal   society   enabled  them  to    extend  and 
improve  their  agricultural  operations  in  general,  and  to 
become  farmers  on  a  large  scale  with  means  for  the 
employment  of  numbers  of  free  labourers.     From  tenants  " 
they   became   practically   proprietors,   and   estate  was 
added  to  estate,  to  which  newer  methods  of  cultivation 
were  applied  with  the  gradual  decay  of  the  open-field 
system.     At  the  opening  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
ancient  'balks  which  separated  the  strips  of  land  from 
each    other    were    disappearing,    and    they    gradually 
became  a  stimulating  object  for  antiquarian    research 
rather  than  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  country- 
side.     This  breaking  down  of  the  old-fashioned   divi- 
sions on  the  land  itself   was   symbolical  of  the  new 
social  forces  which  were  obliterating  the  sharp  feudal 
distinctions   between   class   and   class.      The  knightly 
qualification  tended  to   become  based  upon  property 
other  than  land;   knights  became  traders,  and  traders 
became  knights.     The  imposition  of  a  tax  on  movable 

199 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

property  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  was  a  legal 
recognition  that  land  was  no  longer  the  sole  form  of 
property,  and  that  the  feudal  system  did  not  cover  all 
the  facts  of  economic  life. 

And  yet,  in  general,  the  legal  theory  of  society  was 
still  feudal  in  opposition  to  the  pressure  of  economic 
facts :  an  opposition  which  was  the  root  of  all  the 
labour  troubles  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 
The  proprietary  classes,  who  themselves  no  longer 
represented  feudal  practice,  still  clung  to  it  in  theory 
as  a  means  of  crushing  the  free  labourers,  who  were 
growing  too  numerous  and  independent,  and  who, 
unlike  their  social  superiors,  were  unrepresented  in 
Parliament.  But  all  the  narrow  class  legislation  of 
their  "  Statutes  of  Labourers  "  failed  to  rehabilitate 
the  dying  institution  of  industrial  feudalism,  and  it 
gave  way  before  the  principle  of  free  labour  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  centralization  of  land  in  fewer  hands 
on  the  other.  The  via  dolorosa  of  the  labourer's  long 
progress  to  political  freedom  it  is  happily  not  our  lot 
to  follow;  but  the  rural  labourer,  whose  villages  still 
retain  innumerable  social  and  even  economic  traditions 
from  the  older  feudal  times,  has  at  last  been  enabled, 
almost  in  our  own  time,  to  participate  freely  in  common 
political  deliberation  and  action  with  the  rest  of  the 
nation,  to  the  manifest  strengthening  of  that  national 
sentiment  which  is  only  felt  in  full  perfection  when  all 
classes  share  it  alike. 

The  part  played  by  alien  forces  in  the  dissolution  of 
the  Feudal  System  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  extremely 
effective  and  far-reaching.  Even  where  the  seed  of 
change  lay  buried  in  the  native  soil,  it  required  the 
current  of  foreign  influence  to  bring  it  to  the  light  of 
day  and  to  the  full  development  of  its  natural  powers. 
But  the  break-up  of  feudalism  does  not  exhaust 
the  account  of  alien  influence  upon  English  life,  and 
here,  again,  we  return  to  the  capable  guidance  of  Dr. 
Cunningham. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  religious  necessity 
rather  than  industrial  adventure  regulated  the  general 
course  of  immigration  into  England;  but  the  national 
life  gained  no  less  in  industrial  wealth  and  inspiration 

200 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

from  the  newcomers  than  from  the  old.  In  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII.  the  religious  disturbances  in  the  North 
of  Europe  brought  a  considerable  number  of  foreigners 
here,  although  the  still-felt  native  jealousy  struggled 
hard  with  religious  sympathy.  In  three  successive 
Tudor  reigns  an  alien  was  "  the  provider  of  the  King's 
Instruments  of  War."  There  were  new  accessions  of 
foreign  silk-weavers,  blanket-makers,  glaziers,  printers, 
bookbinders,  makers  of  felt  hats.  Starched  linen  was 
introduced  by  a  Dutchwoman,  and  the  Elizabethan 
court  thus  owes  its  stiffly  picturesque  appearance  to  a 
foreigner  and  the  industry  she  brought  with  her.  The 
Queen  herself  infused  our  provincial  life  with  many 
alien  elements  by  transporting  foreign  tradesmen  and 
artizans  to  country  towns.  It  is  clear  that  Manchester 
owes  the  foundation  of  its  special  prosperity  to  the 
foreigners  from  Antwerp  who  introduced  cotton  into 
this  country.  Not  only  did  these  people  become  for 
the  most  part  absorbed  into  the  population;  not  only 
did  they  spread  their  industrial  arts  among  the  natives ; 
but  some  characteristic  institutions  of  our  English 
public  life  were  borrowed  from  them.  The  Trade 
Union  Movement,  for  example,  is  a  development  of  the 
Friendly  Society  Movement,  which  was  copied  from  the 
plans  adopted  by  the  foreign  colonies  in  Great  Britain 
for  the  relief  and  support  of  their  members  in  poverty 
and  sickness.  The  fact,  too,  that  these  groups  of 
foreigners,  with  their  separate  traditions  and  their  own 
religious  institutions,  existed  as  loyal  elements  of  the 
population,  had  no  small  influence  upon  the  spread  of 
that  spirit  of  toleration  which  is  one  of  our  typical 
English  characteristics.  Dr.  Cunningham  thinks  that,  as 
Norman  immigrants  under  Edward  the  Confessor  to 
some  extent  prepared  public  opinion  for  the  accession  of 
the  Norman  Conqueror,  so  the  advent  of  William  III. 
was  facilitated  by  the  presence  of  a  considerable  Dutch 
element  in  English  society,  and  he  states  that  there  were 
many  aliens  among  the  London  merchants  who  founded 
the  Bank  of  England,  and  thus  gave  important  financial 
assistance  to  the  alien  King  and  his  policy.1  The  Excise 
was  based  upon  a  Dutch  model,  as  the  previous  taxation 
1  Alien  Immigrants,  p.  207. 
201 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  movable  goods  was  based  upon  a  Papal  model.  There 
can  hardly,  indeed,  be  placed  any  limit  to  the  number  of 
Dutch  artizans  who  came  into  England  during  the  whole 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  great  efforts  were 
made  to  absorb  the  old-standing  religious  communities 
of  aliens  into  the  general  body  of  the  population. 

After  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  some 
80,000  Huguenots  landed  in  England;  and,  although 
many  passed  on  their  way  to  America,  some  40,000  still 
remained  in  this  country.  The  flower  of  King  William's 
army  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne  was  drawn  from  these 
refugees — not  only  its  leaders,  but  its  private  soldiers  as 
well.  Further,  it  was  a  special  feature  of  this  immigra- 
tion that  so  many  of  those  who  participated  in  it  were 
men  of  family  and  education;  and  they  have,  through 
their  descendants,  left  their  mark  upon  English  literature 
and  science  in  particular,  besides  contributing  a  large 
Huguenot  tradition  to  our  national  character  by  their 
dissemination  through  the  country,  and  their  amalgama- 
tion with  the  general  population. 

We  have  not  utilized  a  thousandth  part  of  the  material 
so  generously  supplied  by  Dr.  Cunningham  in  support 
of  the  tribute  which  he  pays  to  the  share  which  aliens 
have  had  in  the  formation  of  our  national  tradition 
and  culture.  But  we  have  selected  sufficient  examples 
to  show,  once  and  again,  that  nationality  is  not  a  gift 
of  race,  but  an  amalgamation  of  different  cultural 
traditions  in  one  common  atmosphere.  Our  industrial 
and  social  organism  is  as  composite  as  our  political ; 
but  it  is  interpenetrated  by  the  same  spirit  of  national 
unity,  in  spite  of  the  importance  of  some  of  the  sub- 
ordinate interests  which  combine  to  its  formation. 
Indeed,  mere  political  unity  is  not  only  a  body  without 
a  soul,  but  a  skeleton  without  flesh  and  sinews ;  and  a 
common  King,  common  Laws  and  a  common  Parliament 
have  no  meaning  or  value  except  as  the  organized 
expression  of  common  hopes,  common  interests  and 
common  sympathies.  And  as  our  political  unity  is  the 
result  of  the  amalgamation  of  different  principles  of 
administration  derived  from  various  sources,  so  our 
social  unity  owes  a  large  part  of  its  strength  to  the  skill 
with  which  it  has  embodied  the  innumerable  foreign 
elements  which  have  contributed  to  its  shaping.  We, 

202 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

too,  have  been  an  international  "  melting-pot,"  and 
those  who  have  come  here  from  foreign  lands,  bringing 
their  national  traditions  of  culture  and  character  with 
them,  have  disappeared  as  separate  elements  to  fuse 
in  the  one  national  whole.  We  cannot  discriminate 
to-day,  by  any  peculiarity  of  action  or  thought  or 
feeling,  between  the  descendants  of  those  who  were 
aliens  a  few  generations  ago  and  of  those  who  were 
here  in  the  days  of  Alfred  and  Egbert.  The  progeny 
of  the  40,000  Huguenots  who  settled,  in  England  are  not 
credited  with  any  national  sympathy  with  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Huguenots  who  went  to  Frankfort  or  the 
Baltic  Provinces  at  the  same  time ;  and,  if  the  Flemish 
Protestants  whom  Mary  drove  to  Germany  had  been 
allowed  to  remain  in  England,  we  cannot  imagine  that 
their  descendants  would  have  been  less  British  in  senti- 
ment than  they  are  German  in  the  country  which  wel- 
comed their  parents.  Dr.  Cunningham  is  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  benefits  of  continuing  the  traditional 
British  policy  of  extending  hospitality  to  aliens  are 
exhausted.  Be  that  as  it  may,  those  who  accept  the 
view  maintained  in  these  pages,  that  nationality  is  the 
product  of  education  and  environment,  the  result  of  a 
tradition,  will  see  reason  for  doubting  the  wisdom  of  the 
facility  with  which  aliens  have  been  able  formally  to 
adopt  the  complete  rights  of  British  citizenship.  Five 
years'  residence  in  the  United  Kingdom,  or  five  years'  work 
in  the  service  of  the  Crown,  are  not  sufficient  to  dissolve 
the  sympathies  born  of  childish  associations  and  youthful 
training  in  a  foreign  tradition.  It  seems  questionable 
whether,  as  a  general  rule,  there  should  be  any  naturaliza- 
tion of  adults  at  all.  Early  subjection  to  the  national 
tradition,  early  training  in  the  national  culture,  are  the 
only  regular  and  effective  means  for  the  production  of 
patriots.  Children  of  aliens  settled  here,  and  intending 
to  remain  here,  would  naturally  be  dominated  by  the 
British  tradition  in  spite  of  any  alien  sympathies  senti- 
mentally cherished  in  the  domestic  atmosphere;  and 
for  the  second  generation  there  should  thus  be  full 
participation  in  national  rights  and  privileges.  But 
not  for  the  first,  except  in  the  rarest  cases,  where  British 
nationality  might  be  conferred  as  a  reward  for  special 
national  or  civic  services,  as  a  knighthood  or  a  baronetcy 

203 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

is  now  conferred.  Nor  should  a  Secretary  of  State  possess 
absolute  discretion  to  confer  or  refuse  nationality  even 
in  these  limited  cases;  the  decision  should  lie  \vith  a 
representative  body  of  the  alien's  British  fellow-citizens, 
after  the  style  of  the  ancient  institution  of  "  the 
sworn  inquest  of  neighbours " ;  in  other  words,  a  local 
jury,  who  alone  are  in  possession  of  sufficient  informa- 
tion to  judge  whether  the  foreigner  settled  in  their 
midst  is  fitted  by  his  conduct  .and  sympathies  to  be  an 
Englishman.  Then,  and  then  only,  after  a  unanimous 
verdict  of  consent  and  recommendation  from  his  English 
neighbours,  should  the  alien  be  naturalized;  and  any 
change  of  name  from  foreign  to  British  which  might 
seem  desirable  in  such  a  case  should  no  longer  be 
effected,  as  Schadenhofers  are  turned  into  Sylvesters, 
and  Morgensteins  into  Montroses,  by  the  easy  formality 
of  a  deed  poll  or  the  still  more  casual  newspaper  adver- 
tisement. Nationality  is  not  transformed  by  a  change 
of  name,  nor  by  a  brief  contact  with  a  new  national 
tradition;  it  is  a  fruit  perfected  by  prolonged  nurture 
in  a  favourable  soil  and  by  the  constant  influence  of  a 
congenial  atmosphere. 

What  would  have  been  the  political  constitution  and 
social  condition  of  the  British  people  to-day  without 
the  constant  influx  of  alien  traditions,  bringing  new  ar^d 
broader  interests  in  their  train,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  state  with  any  accuracy  of  detail;  and  it  is  clear 
that  in  many  respects  the  constituents  of  our  national 
life  would  have  been  different  from  what  they  are  now. 
But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  progressive  stream 
of  national  development  would  have  ceased  to  broaden 
and  strengthen  without  their  tributary  aid.  Life  in 
society  is  always  capable  of  progress,  owing  to  the 
accumulation  of  experience  and  the  production  of 
varieties  of  individual  character;  and,  even  if  no  alien 
had  landed  on  our  shores  after  the  Norman  Conquest, 
there  were  already  established  here  a  number  of  distinct 
traditions  whose  progressive  amalgamation  has  been  the 
most  conspicuous  feature  of  our  national  history.  Be- 
sides, it  takes  a  long  time  to  exhaust  the  direct  environ- 
mental influences  of  such  a  geographical  situation  as 
ours.  The  continuous  play  and  interplay  of  these 

204 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

domiciliar  traditions;  the  differences  of  physical  and 
social  environment  prevailing  in  different  parts  of 
the  British  Islands ;  the  effects  of  these  upon  different 
minds,  and  through  them  upon  the  community  at 
large  :  could  not,  we  imagine,  have  failed  to  establish 
our  political,  social  and  industrial  life  substantially 
upon  its  present  general  lines.  For  example,  the 
Reformation  in  England,  productive  as  it  was  of  the 
most  far-reaching  national  events,  had  been  anticipated 
by  England  herself  by  the  teaching  of  Wycliffe  and  the 
Lollards,  who  had  independently  developed  the  main 
principles  of  the  doctrine  subsequently  elaborated  in 
Germany  and  Geneva.  The  right  of  the  individual 
man  to  interpret  the  Bible  for  himself,  and  the  denial 
of  the  Transubstantiation,  already  in  the  fifteenth 
century  separated  English  religious  life  into  two  com- 
peting spheres  of  spiritual  interest;  and  the  fact  that 
these  spheres  of  interest  were  shaken  together,  and 
confused,  and  broken  in  pieces,  by  the  political  interests 
with  which  they  came  into  sympathetic  contact  or 
violent  opposition,  serves  the  better  to  illustrate  the 
general  truth  that  progress  is  dependent  upon  the 
mutual  interaction  of  different  spheres  of  interest. 
The  opposing  interests  of  property  and  free  labour  cut 
across  the  interests  of  religious  life,  arid  the  Lollards 
were  suppressed,  not  because  of  their  religious,  but  their 
social  and  political,  tenets.  New  spheres  of  domestic 
interest  have  constantly  arisen,  to  be  finally  amalgamated 
with,  or  at  any  rate  brought  into  subordination  to,  the 
general  conception  of  nationality.  English  Catholics 
and  English  Protestants,  bitterly  hostile  as  their 
competing  interests  were  in  the  days,  of  Elizabeth, 
found  themselves  equally  Englishmen  in  face  of  the 
Spanish  threat;  and  although  the  forces  of  nationality 
are  not  on  all  occasions  equally  active  and  dominating 
they  form  a  permanent  background  of  sentiments  and 
interests  which  are  always  successfully  appealed  to  at 
times  of  national  necessity.  That  they  are  not  more 
constantly  exhibited  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  circum- 
stances operating  upon  our  national  life  have  not  yet 
been  properly  interpreted,  either  by  the  nation .  as  a 
whole  or  by  the  representative  personalities  who  guide 

205 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

its  fortunes.  An  intelligent  and  effective  and  universally 
self-conscious  patriotism  can  only  become  a  permanently 
active  endowment  of  our  national  character  when  the 
social  environment  of  every  particular  individual,  and 
the  direct  and  conscious  training  which  he  receives 
from  his  childhood,  are  such  as  to  convince  him  that  he 
owes  everything  to  England,  and  that  England  in  return 
claims  everything  from  him.  You  cannot  expect  a 
casual  dock-labourer  to  show  the  patriotism  of  the  Eton 
boy,  partly  because  the  nation  does  little  that  is  dis- 
tinctively national  for  the  casual  labourer,  and  partly 
because  the  Eton  boy,  starting  with  the  very  stones  of 
his  "  cloisters,"  receives  a  better,  if  not  a  perfect, 
education  in  what  he  owes  to  his  country.  Patriotism, 
as  we  said  in  opening  this  chapter,  must  be  taught,  not 
only  by  the  general  effect  of  the  social  entourage  but 
by  the  conscious  and  deliberate  instruction  of  youth. 
When  the  social  entourage  of  the  dock-labourer  and  the 
derelict  are  systematically  taken  in  hand  by  the  wise 
action  of  statesmen  and  legislators- — who  have  recognized 
his  existence  only  when  his  services  were  wanted  and 
neglected  him  entirely  at  other  times — and  when  he  is 
also  intelligently  educated  to  recognize  what  he  owes 
to  his  country ;  when  patriotism  is  taught  systematically 
and  sanely  to  the  childhood  and  youth  of  every  class 
of  the  community; — we  shall  then  attain  the  final 
condition  of  a  permanent  and  universal  sentiment  of 
nationality.  Every  person  born  in  the  country  should 
be  so  trained  as  to  give  tp  the  country  what  his  natural 
capacities  fit  him  to  give,  and  to  receive  from  his  country 
what  his  natural  capacities  fit  him  to  receive. 

Meantime,  we  should  be  grateful  that  the  action  of 
events  and  of  the  personalities  who  have  guided  them 
have  operated  to  give  the  national  sentiment  even  its 
present  degree  of  compelling  force.  With  the  progress 
of  a  more  general  education,  and  a  more  direct  participa- 
tion in  political  power,  we  are  aware  of  a  constantly 
increasing  tendency  in  the  various  parties,  sects  and 
interests  in  the  State  to  subordinate  their  special 
activities  to  the  paramount  claims  of  the  community 
as  a  whole.  The  intersection  and  modification  of 
separatist  spheres  of  interest  by  other  spheres  of  interest 

206 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  more  general  application  has  been  a  natural  develop- 
ment of  our  social  and  political  life  during  the  whole 
course  of  our  national  history.  It  is  a  process  as  con- 
stantly active  in  modern  as  in  mediaeval  and  ancient 
times.  The  mutually  persecuting  animosities  of  religious 
sects  were  mollified  as  members  of  the  separate  faiths 
began  to  intermingle  in  commercial,  artistic,  literary 
and  political  circles  of  activity.  You  cannot  meet  a 
man  in  friendly  competition  or  co-operation  at  a  business 
counter  and  then  burn  him  in  chains  over  a  slow  fire. 
The  apparently  internecine  animosities  of  opposing 
politicians  fade  away  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  common 
social  life  to  <  which  they  all  belong.  This  gradual 
emergence  of  public  amenity  from  the  storm  and  stress 
of  private  animosity,  even  when  that  animosity  has 
been  expressed  and  guided  by  legislative  enactments, 
has  been  one  of  the  main  causes  of  that  consolidation 
of  national  unity  which  we  have  witnessed  since  the 
Revolution.  Always  the  intermingling  of  separate,  even 
opposing,  spheres  of  interest  has  led  to  the  formation  of 
broader  interests  in  which  the  original  divergencies  have 
become  academic  or  sentimental  traditions  and  at  last 
have  faded  away.  And  even  where  animosities  still 
exist  between  opposing  policies  in  trade,  religion,  or 
local  government,  the  final  justification  pleaded  by  the 
conflicting  parties  is  that  their  special  attitude  is 
exclusively  directed  by  considerations  of  the  national 
interest. 

The  nationalizing  process  is  a  process  of  education, 
whether  by  the  mutual  action  and  interaction  of  social 
spheres  of  interest  or  by  the  conscious  and  deliberate 
direction  of  the  national  mind.  This  process  has 
hitherto  secured  large  results;  but  it  may  be  con- 
fidently predicted  that  the  forces  of  nationality,  accentu- 
ated and  harmonized  as  never  before  by  the  shock  of 
war,  will  be  placed  upon  a  more  thorough  and  systematic 
educational  basis,  and  will  thereby  be  brought  to  a 
state  of  more  effective  solidarity  than  has,  perhaps, 
hitherto  been  conceived  possible. 


207 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Principle  of  Commingling  of  Atmospheres  as  applied  to  Literature 
— "  Race  "  in  Literature — Growth  of  national  Literature — Anglo- 
Saxon  Literature  rather  a  Branch  of  universal  Literature  than 
national ;  the  national  Atmosphere  dominated  by  the  cosmopolitan 
Tradition  of  Rome — Chaucer :  his  Work  due  to  a  Commingling  of 
Elements — Native  Influences  no  less  than  foreign  form  Part  of 
his  Environment — Nothing  in  Chaucer  can  be  explained  by  his 
"  Race  " — How  he  contributed  to  form  a  national  Literature  : 
(1)  By  treating  of  Things  in  which  Englishmen  as  such  were 
interested,  (2)  By  treating  of  foreign  Things  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  them  interesting  to  the  English — National  Literature 
firmly  founded  by  Chaucer. 

THE  brief  historical  and  literary  sketches  given  in  the 
last  six  chapters  illustrate  with  sufficient  clearness  the 
notion  which  the  writer  has  formed  of  the  manner  in 
which  a  national  atmosphere  is  created  and  national 
character  and  national  sentiment  established.  Although 
it  is  manifestly  impossible  for  any  single  inquirer  to 
follow  this  process  as  it  operates  through  all  the  pro- 
longed epochs  of  our  national  life,  yet  the  writer  must 
confess  that  it  is  with  a  certain  serenity  of  confidence 
that  he  appeals  to  specialists  in  the  history  of  our 
social,  political,  literary  and  artistic  development;  to 
experts  in  ecclesiastical,  municipal  and  parochial  lore; 
to  students  of  science,  philosophy  and  conduct  alike; 
for  corroboration  of  his  view  that  everywhere  the  story 
of  national  evolution  is  the  same ;  that  everywhere  the 
process  of  development  is  that  of  a  tradition  modified 
from  generation  to  generation  by  an  ever-changing 
environment,  and  broadening  from  community  to  com- 
munity by  the  intermingling  of  traditions  and  atmo- 
spheres. In  social  habits,  in  political  institutions,  in 
artistic,  scientific  and  philosophical  acquisitions,  the 
progress  of  a  people  is  not  dependent  upon  race,  but 
upon  environment  in  its  widest  and  most  comprehensive 
sense.  How  else  does  it  happen  that  patriotism  does 

208 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

not  depend  upon  blood,  .but  upon  association  and 
interest?  How  else  does  it  happen  that  of  all  the 
varied  stocks  who  inhabit  these  Islands  there  is  not  one 
whose  claims  to  be  regarded  as  especially  "  national  " 
would  not  be  repudiated  with  laughing  scorn  by  the 
remainder?  How  else  does  it  happen  that  where  the 
British  national  sentiment  is  weak  the  phenomenon 
can  be  assigned  to  causes  which  have  nothing  to  do 
with  race,  but  have  everything  to  do  with  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  attitude  assumed  by  the  dominant 
social  or  political  partner  to  the  weaker,  or  by  the 
weaker  to  the  dominant?  If  Ireland  has  been  at  any 
time  anti-British  in  political  sentiment,  it  is  not  because 
her  people  belong  to  different  races  from  the  British, 
but  because  British  statesmen  and  Irish  leaders  have  not 
so  guided  the  destinies  of  their  peoples  as  to  cause  their 
common  interests  to  d9minate  their  separate  interests. 
The  two  environments  have  not  affected  each  other  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bring  about  that  sympathetic  harmony 
which  has  been  the  rule  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
To  argue  in  a  contrary  sense  is  to  give  the  lie  to  the 
proud  boast  which  claims  that  our  Imperial  policy  has 
been  such  as  to  make  French  Canadians  as  patriotic  as 
Scotsmen,  and  Boers  as  imperialistic  as  Cockneys. 

And  not  in  politics  only  does  this  principle  apply. 
Although  attempts  have  been  made  to  weigh,  measure, 
and  compare  the  amount  of  patriotism  shown  by  this 
or  that  great  writer  beyond  his  fellows,  to  suggest  that 
the  result,  such  as  it  was,  has  any  relation  to  the  blood 
of  the  writer  would  be  a  notion  admittedly  puerile  and 
fantastic.  We  believe  that  critics  have  tried  to  explain 
some  aspects  of  Shakespeare's  genius  by  his  "  Celtic  " 
descent.  But  if  a  high  degree  of  poetic  imagination 
were  a  product  of  the  "  Celtic  race  "  as  such,  the  wonder 
would  be  to  find  so  many  "  Celts "  as  deficient  in 
imagination  as  the  prosiest  "  Teuton."  Shakespeare  is 
not  great  because  he  is  Teuton,  Celtic,  Scandinavian,  or 
Turanian,  because  he  is  dolichocephalic  or  brachyce- 
phalic ;  that  is,  by  virtue  of  the  racial  qualities  supposed 
to  be  denoted  by  these  terms ;  but  because  Nature,  who 
never  produces  two  things  alike,  formed  him  a  being 
possessing  the  common  powers  of  humanity  to  such  a 
p  *  209 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

degree  and  in  such  a  kind  that,  aided  by  his  environ- 
ment, he  was  able  to  produce  results  of  a  specially 
admirable  and  beautiful  sort.  But  the  result  was  a 
human  result,  and  not  a  Celtic,  Scandinavian,  Teuton, 
Turanian,  dolichocephalic  or  brachycephalic  result.  It 
was  an  English  result  in  so  far  as  its  expression  was 
moulded  by  the  forms  of  the  English  language,  and  by 
the  conditions  of  the  poet's  life  as  an  Elizabethan 
Englishman.  That  his  art  makes  a  human  appeal 
which  is  responded  to  by  people  belonging  to  many 
different  "races"  is  an  incidental  corroboration  of  the 
argument.  We  submit  that  Shakespeare's  "  univer- 
sality "  is  due  to  the  extraordinary  quality  and  degree 
in  which  he  exhibited  certain  general  human  powers ;  in 
a  word,  to  his  genius.  The  special  force  of  his  appeal  to 
one  people  is  due  to  the  fact  that  his  genius  worked 
hi  an  environment  which  fell  to  him  as  born  and  reared  in 
the  historic  tradition  of  that  people.  To  assert  that 
there  is  anything  especially  Celtic  in  his  work  merely 
means,  if  it  means  anything,  that  his  environment,  either 
by  family  tradition  or  otherwise,  brought  him  under  the 
influence  of  those  methods  of  feeling  and  thinking 
which  had  formed  part  of  the  Celtic  environment.1 

Indeed,  if  there  is  one  branch  of  artistic  productive- 
ness which  exemplifies  more  fully  than  any  other  the 
reasonableness  of  our  argument,  that  branch  is  the 
sphere  of  literary  activity,  although,  at  the  same  time, 
no  branch  of  artistic  productiveness  has  furnished  more 
pretexts  for  the  fanciful  divagations  of  the  racial 
theorist.  Widespread  as  racial  idolatry  is,  it  is  espe- 
cially rampant  in  the  histories  of  national  literature. 
It  is,  of  course,  quite  true  that  national  literature  is 
national  literature;  that  there  are  broad  differences 
between  the  literatures  of  England,  France,  Germany, 
and  Russia — differences  which  are  not  measured  by 
differences  of  language  alone,  but  which  express  differ- 

1  "  Warwickshire  muss  zu  denjenigen  englischen  Graf schaf ten 
gehort  haben,  in  denen  alte  Brauche,  alte  Ueberlieferungen  am  kraft- 
igsten  fortlebten.  Von  den  Anfangen  der  englischen  Geschichte  her 
war  dies  ein  Gebiet,  in  dem  verschiedene  Stamme  oder  auch  Nationali- 
taten  sich  beriihrten  :  zuerst  Westsachsen  und  Kelten,  dann  West- 
sachsen  und  Angeln,"  etc. — Shakespeare,  by  B.  Ten  Brink,  p.  19. 

210 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

ences  of  outlook,  differences  of  ideal,   and  differences 
of  historical  development.     That  there  are  similarities, 
too,   it   would   be  futile  to    deny — similarities   due  to 
participation  in  a  common  traditional  culture,  as,  for 
example,  the  culture  of  Greece  and  Rome  the  gift  of 
the  Renascence  to   literary  Europe  as  a  whole;   and, 
also  for  example,  the  similarities  due  to  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  imitation  by  the  writers  of  one  nation 
of  the  literary  standards  of  another.     But  the  differences 
prevail  over  the  similarities  to   such  an   extent  as  to 
leave  in  each  case  something  which  can  only  be  de- 
scribed as  national,  if  we  are  to  use  words  in  the  sense 
which  they  usually  convey.     Now  these  national  dif- 
ferences are  ascribed  with  striking  unanimity  among 
historians  of  literature  to  the  racial  element  which  is 
supposed  to  separate  fundamentally  one  nation  from 
another.     Even  where  several  distinct  nationalities  are 
assigned  to  the  same  race,  as  in  the  case  of  Norway, 
Sweden,   and  Denmark,  the  assumed  general  charac- 
teristics of  the  Scandinavian  race  are  attributed  in  one 
comprehensive  generalization  to  the  three  literatures, 
which,  however,  are  marked  by  striking  national  dif- 
ferences.    Taine,    whose    wonderful    book    on    English 
literature  is  the  type  and   exemplar  of  modern  works 
of  this  kind,  assigns  to  Race  the  first  place  among  the 
three  formative  influences  upon  our  literary  productive- 
ness.1    When,  of  course,  it  was  thought  that  national 
differences  were  based  upon  differences  of  race  it  was 
fatally  natural  and  easy  to    explain   all  differences  of 
national   activity   in   this   way.     The   wonder   is   that 
modern  ethnological  discoveries  as  to  the  mixed  racial 
origin  of  European  nations  have  not  admittedly  de- 
stroyed the  possibility  of  such  an   explanation.     The 
greater   wonder   still   is   that   the   differences   between 
national  literature  have  not  been  explained  by  differences 
of  national  environment.     And  the  greatest  wonder  of 
all  is  that,  with  differences  of  national  literature  mani- 
festly existing,  and  with  such  a  reasonable  explanation 
ready  to   hand,   there  are   some   people  who,   having 

^History  of  English  Literature,  by  H.  A.  Taine,  D.C.L.  Translated 
from  the  French  by  H.  van  Laun.  In  four  vols.  (London :  Chatto 
&  Windus,  1906).  Intro.,  p.  17. 

211 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

disproved  the  existence  of  racial  literature,  think  they 
have  equally  disproved  the  existence  of  national  litera- 
ture. But  as  the  writer  believes  that  in  the  principle 
of  organic  continuity  of  common  interest  there  is  to  be 
found  a  scientific  explanation  of  the  growth  of  nationality 
and  national  character,  so  he  is  convinced  that  in  the 
same  principle  there  lies  an  explanation  of -the  growth 
and  development  of  national  literature.  It  is  quite 
natural  that  this  should  be  so.  If  it  be  true*  as  an 
English  critic  has  said,  that  "  the  full  mind  of  a  nation 
is  its  literature,"  *  and,  as  a  German  critic  has  asserted, 
that  "  creative  poetry,''  the  highest  kind  of  literature, 
"  can  only  be  derived  from  the  inward  life  of  a  people,"  ? 
it  is  quite  reasonable  to  expect  to  find  in  the  literature 
of  a  people  at  once  a  record  and  an  example  of  the 
actual  processes  of  social  life  and  development.  When 
dealing  with  the  German  tribes  of  Tacitus  as  com- 
pared with  the  people  of  Beowulf,  we  noted  that 
certain  characteristics  were  common  to  the  people  of 
the  two  epochs,  but  that  the  later  had  acquired  certain 
other  characteristics  which  could  only  have  been  due  to 
the  variegated  historical  environment  through  which 
the  original  tribes  and  their  successive  representatives 
had  passed.  We  also  saw  that  the  Beowulf  people 
were  deficient  in  certain  characteristics  which  subse- 
quently marked  the  British  people,  and  which  were  to 
be  acquired  by  the  discipline  of  later  historical  environ- 
ments. This  process,  we  submit,  is  the  secret  of  the 
development  6f  that  great  branch  of  specially  national 
art,  English  literature.  Right  away  from  the  beginning 
of  our  literary  history,  the  record  of  our  growth  in 
literary  productiveness  is  a  record  of  the  results 
produced  upon  one  tendency  by  the  influence  of  other 
tendencies,  by  the  commingling  of  environments  from 
various  external  sources  upon  that  environment  which, 
for  well-understood  purposes  of  descriptive  convenience, 
may  be  called  the  native  or  English  environment. 
The  only  examples  we  possess  of  Pagan  English  litera- 

1  Morley's  English  Writers,  Intro.,  p.  1. 

*  A  Course  of  Lectures  on  Dramatic  Art  and  Literature,  by  Augustus 
William  ScHegel,  translated  by  John  Black  (London,  1815),  Vol.  I. 
p.  283. 

212 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

ture  are  so  fragmentary  both  in  number  and  form  that 
it  is  worse  than  useless  to  attempt  to  found  upon  them 
any  general  conclusions  as  to  the  literary  characteristics 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  invaders.  The  very  most  we  can 
say  is  that  the  Far  Traveller,  the  Wanderer,  and  the 
Seafarer  corroborate  the  conclusions  we  have  already 
drawn  from  an  examination  of  the  Saga  of  Beowulf.1 
But  that  epic  did  not  take  its  present  form  until  the 
ninth  century,  and  that  Christian  influence  had  operated 
upon  its  production  might  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  it  appealed  subsequently  to  Caedmon  and  .Aid- 
helm,  as  well  as  from  an  examination  of  the  poem  itself. 
Indeed,  the  one  great  fact  in  the  history  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature  lies  in  the  general  interpenetration  of 
the  Pagan  environment  of  battle  and  good  cheer  with 
the  calmer  graces  of  the  Christian  atmosphere.  Every 
now  and  again  the  old  note  comes  defiantly  out,  as  in 
the  "  Battle  of  Maldon  "  and  some  short  poems  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle ; 2  but  Caedmon  sees  English 
rural  life  only  as  it  is  dominated  by  the  neighbouring 
religious  foundation,  and  retells  the  Biblical  story  to 
his  countrymen  with  more  than  Hebrew  realism.  If 

1  The  passion  for  wandering  combined  with  longing  for  home;  the 
love  of  the  sea  combined  with  yearning  for  the  land ;  the  desire  to  be 
alone  combined  with  a  joyous  anticipation  of  the  coming  social  revel 
in  the  Mead  Hall — all  the  elements  of  these  contrasts  still  form  part 
of  our  character  as  a  people.     In  the  Wanderer  there  is  described  one 
who  is — 

"  Not  over  hot  in  his  heart,  nor  over  swift  in  his  speech, 
Nor  faint  of  soul  nor  secure,  nor  fain  for  the  fight  nor  afraid, 
Nor  ready  to  boast  before  he  know  himself  well  arrayed." 

(Translation  by  Emily  H.  Hickey  in  Translations  from  Old  English 
Poetry  (Cook  &  Tinker.  Boston  :  Ginn  &  Co.,  1902).  Most  English- 
men know-men  of  this  character,  and  the  traits  are  at  times  conspicuous 
in  our  national  activities  or  inactivities. 

2  The  Battle  of  Maldon,  and  Short  Poems  from  the  Saxon  Chronicle, 
edited  with  Introduction,  Notes  and  Glossary,  by  Walter  John  Sedge- 
field,  Litt.D.  (Boston  and  London  :  D.  C.  Heath,  1904).     The  Joy  of 
Battle  and  Loyalty  to  one's  Lord  are  the  dominant  notes  of  the  "  Battle 
of  Maldon"  (or  "The  Song  of  Bryhtnoth's  Death").      "Germanic 
poetry  can  show  no  fairer  nor  more  powerful  picture  of  true  loyalty." — 
Zernial,  Das  Lied  von  Bryhtnoth's  Fall,  quoted  by  Sedgefield,  Intro., 
p.  vii. 

213 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

Aldhelm  gathers  an  audience  on  Sherborne  bridge  by 
reciting  vulgar  English  ballads,  it  is  done  under  false 
pretences,  and  he  makes  the  balance  of  Christian  pro- 
priety more  than  even  by  treating  the  crowd  to  a 
description  of  the  horrors  of  the  grave  in  the  true  spirit 
of  the  preaching  friar.  Although  of  princely  Saxon 
blood,  Aldhelm  readily  imbibed  the  culture  of  Irish 
Christianity  from  Maildulf  at  Malmesbury,  and  then 
learned  with  equal  facility  all  that  the  foreigners  Theo- 
dore and  Hadrian  could  teach  him  of  Greek,  Latin  and 
Hebrew  at  Canterbury.  If  Alcuin  and  Bede  are  English- 
men by  birth  and  speech,  they  soon  sink  their  native 
insularity  in  the  cosmopolitanism  of  Rome,  and  write 
eloquent  histories  and  precise  systems  of  education  in 
the  language  of  Lactantius,  Symmachus  and  St.  Augus- 
tine, adorning  their  pages  with  passages  from  the 
Christian  poets,  Prudentius  and  Ausonius.  Cynewulf 
writes  long  poems  in  the  language  of  Beowulf,  but 
they  deal  with  legends  of  the  saints,  and  not  with 
legends  of  the  Pagan  gods;  although  ever  and  anon 
we  descry  the  faded  forms  of  the  ancient  deities  looming 
vaguely  through  the  dim  atmosphere  of  Christian 
mysticism.  If  Alfred  gives  his  people  good  English,  he 
goes  for  the  substance  of  his  matter  to  Boethius  and 
Orosius.  With  teachers  such  as  these,  and  educated  in 
this  way,  what  wonder  that  the  great  scholastic  institu- 
tion at  Malmesbury,  Jarrow,  York,  Canterbury  and 
the  rest  were  centres  radiating  Roman  culture  among 
all  those  who  wished  to  make  any  literary  appeal  to 
the  Anglo-Saxon  community?  The  Latin  atmosphere 
rested  on  the  land,  and  English  literature,  even  when 
written  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue,  is  cosmopolitan,  not 
only  in  tone  and  style,  but  in  subject  as  well.  It  is  no 
doubt  true,  as  ecclesiastical  historians  insist,  that  "  while 
its  conversion  restored  England  to  the  older  common- 
wealth of  nations,  the  circumstances  which  brought  it 
about  tended  in  an  eminent  degree  to  maintain  the' 
national  character  of  the  Church  thus  founded  " ;  that 
"  the  English  Church  was  saved  from  the  infection  of 
court  life  and  corruption,  which  forms  nearly  the  whole 
history  of  the  Franco-Gallic  Church  " ;  that  "  in  Eng- 
land, almost  alone  in  the  West,  a  purely  national  Church 

214 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

arose  "  ; l  yet  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  so  far  as  literary 
productiveness  was  concerned  the  national  environment 
was  dominated  by  foreign  influences,  and  one  seeks 
almost  in  vain  for  the  expression  in  literature  of  those 
purely  English  qualities  exhibited  in  the  early  poem 
of  Beowulf.  Alcuin  of  York  was  no  more  English 
than  Theodore  was  a  Greek,  or  Hadrian  an  Italian.  The 
fatal  endowment  of  race  was  dropped  with  the  facility 
of  a  wom-out  costume,  and  men  of  widely  different 
origin  bore  the  same  stamp;  all  were  subjects  of  that 
civitas  Dei  which  gave  a  common  spiritual  interest,  and 
to  some  extent  a  common  political  interest,  to  all  who 
were  born  or  baptized  beneath  its  sway. 

The  severe  discipline  of  the  Danish  invasions,  with 
their  irruption  of  butchery  and  brutality,  effected  a 
temporary  change  of  environment  which  was  reflected 
in  the  sparse  literature  of  the  period.  The  "  Battle  of 
Maldon,"  with  its  return  to  the  Pagan  note,  belongs  to 
this  period,  and  ^Elfric,  the  Christian  bishop,  revels  in 
bloodshed  with  all  the  abandon  of  a  Pagan  bareserk. 

Speaking  in  general,  we  may  say  that  the  history  of 
English  literature  from  the  ninth  to  the  fourteenth 
century  is  the  history  of  the  struggle  of  the  native 
Pagan  literary  tradition  to  keep  itself  in  being  beneath 
the  ocean  of  cosmopolitan  ecclesiasticism  which  rushed 
in  to  overwhelm  it.  And  as  it  was  only  a  tradition,  and 
not  a  racial  endowment,  it  was  subject  to  the  chances 
and  changes  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  all  social  tendencies. 
The  Latin  tradition  established  in  England  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  times  continues  unchecked  until  it  is  lost  in  the 
richer  and  broader  stream  of  Classical  influence  which 
poured  into  England  during  a  later  period,  at  which  we 
shall  arrive  in  due  course.  Meantime,  until  Norman- 
French  influence  establishes  itself  in  England  with 
Chaucer,  we  note  how  the  native  English  literary 
muse  struggles  painfully  along  in  pedestrian  garb,  still 
under  the  religious  influence  of  the  earlier  period.2 

1  "  Conversion  of  the  West,"  The  English,  by  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Maclear, 
D.D.     (Pp.   166-7  Dr.  Maclear  quotes  Freeman,  Norman  Conquest, 
I.  31,  and  refers  to  Green,  History  of  the  English  People,  I.  42.) 

2  The  Dark  Ages,  by  W.  P.  Ker  (Wm.  Blackwood  &  Sons,  1904), 
deals  in  Chapter  III.  with  the  Latin  authors  of  the  Period.     The  English 
Latin  authors  are  treated  with  particular  care  and  fulness. 

215 


BfACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

While  hundreds  of  learned  monks  and  high  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  produced  thousands  of  theological  tracts 
and  so-called  histories,  chiefly  of  the  universe;  while 
Englishmen  were  writing  elaborate  works  of  history 
and  law  and  theology  in  Latin,  and  were  thus  perpetu- 
ating the  foreign  tradition  introduced  with  Christianity ; 
other  Englishmen  translated  these  works  into  English, 
or,  already  influenced  by  the  new  Norman-French 
atmosphere,  were  pouring  forth,  one  after  the  other, 
prose  versions,  in  English,  of  popular  French  Romances, 
such  as  the  Romance  of  the  Holy  Grail,  the  Romance 
of  Lancelot,  Merlin,  Morte  D' 'Arthur  and  Tristram. 
Under  the  influence  of  this  double  distraction  we  can 
see  what  was  being  done  with  the  native  English  litera- 
ture if  we  take  up,  say,  Morris'  Specimens  of  Early 
English.*  Of  the  nineteen  specimens  given  there,  seven 
are  in  prose  and  twelve  in  verse.  The  seven  prose 
selections  all  deal  with  religious  subjects  except  one, 
which  is  a  passage  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle. 
The  other  twelve  are  chiefly  romances  of  the  kind  just 
mentioned.  All  that  one  can  say  of  these  is  that  they 
must  represent,  better  than  any  other  class  of  composi- 
tion, what  the  native  Anglo-Saxon  genius  would  have 
produced  unassisted  from  any  other  source  than  Roman 
Christianity.  It  can  hardly  be  called  literature  at  all : 
it  is  poor,  weak  and  ineffective.  The  wells  of  inspira- 
tion were  dried  up  or  the  means  of  expression  were 
uncouth  and  inexpert.  With  Mandeville  and  Chaucer 
we  have  again  a  striking  example  of  what  can  be  accom- 
plished for  literature  by  a  sympathetic  intermingling  of 
foreign  with  native  elements.  In  Mandeville  we  have  an 
almost  perfect  prose,  in  which  Latin  and  English  are 
welded  in  equal  harmony ;  and  in  Chaucer  we  have  the 
fullest  expression  of  the  national  life  resulting  from  the 
commingling  of  French  and  English  artistic  methods, 
French  and  English  vocabularies,  and  French  and 
English  social  life.2 

1  Specimens  of  Early  English,  edited  by  the  Rev.  Richard  Morris, 
LL.D.     Part  I,  A.D.  1150-1300.     Second  Edition  (Oxford  :  Clarendon 
Press,  1887). 

2  The  Travels  of  Sir  John  Mandeville,  edited  by  A.  W.  Pollard 
(London  :  Macinillan  &  Co.,  1905).     The  Complete  Works  of  Geoffrey 

216 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

If  there  ever  was  a  case  in  which  the  character  of  the 
output  of  a  great  poet  was  a  question  of  environmental 
influence,  the  case  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  is  emphatically 
such  a  case.  All  the  critics  alike,  Lowell,  Ten  Brink, 
Mr.  Skeat  and  Mr.  Pollard  place  a  preponderant  portion 
of  their  Chaucerian  exegesis  in  describing  the  result 
upon  the  poet  of  the  various  foreign  influences  to  which 
he  was  subjected.  Now,  if  certain  qualities  of  Chaucer's 
style  and  matter  are  explicable  by  the  environment  of 
his  French  and  Italian  literary  and  social  experiences ; 
if  we  trace  grace  of  expression  to  the  influence  of  this 
model ;  subtlety  of  characterization  to  another ;  dra- 
matic vividness  of  description  to  a  third;  nay,  leaving 
aside  mere  questions  of  artistry,  if  we  say  he  learned 
cynicism  from  this  source,  tenderness  from  that,  out- 
spoken freedom  of  thought  from  still  another;  if  we 
explicitly  assert  that  the  quality  of  his  work  was  a 
question  of  environment  so  far  as  foreign  influences 
affected  him ;  how  can  we  consistently  refuse  to  apply 
the  same  argument  to  what  is  called  the  character- 
istically English  element  in  his  work?  Still  more,  if 
we  reflect  that  part  of  Chaucer's  English  environment 
during  his  youth  and  early  manhood  in  court  circles 
was  the  tradition  of  court  poetry  represented  by  his 
contemporaries,  Machault,  Deschamps,  Froissart  and 
Gransson ;  if  we  follow  the  critics  in  imputing  certain 
qualities  of  his  poetry  to  this  environment;  where  is 
our  right  to  say  that  certain  other  arbitrarily  selected 
qualities  described  as  typically  English  shall  be  detached 
from  their  environment  and  assigned  to  the  operation 
of  racial  influences  operating  in  the  blood  of  the  poet  ? 
If  Chaucer,  say  in  the  Book  of  the  Duchesse,  while 
for  the  most  part  adhering  with  servile  imitation  to 
the  model  of  Machault,  introduces  a  passage  showing 
that  he  is  alert  in  eye  and  ear  for  all  the  charms  of  an 

Chaucer,  by  the  Rev.  Walter  W.  Skeat,  Litt.D.,  LL.D.,  PH.D.,  M.A. 
(Oxford,  Clarendon  Press;  London,  Henry  Frowde,  1901).  Lowell, 
Essay  on  "  Chaucer  "  in  My  Study  Windows.  Chaucer,  by  Alfred  W. 
Pollard,  M.A.  (London,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1903;  "  Literature  Primers"). 
History  of  English  Literature,  by  B.  Ten  Brink — translated  from  the 
German  by  W.  Clarke  Robinson,  PH.D.  (London :  George  Bell  &  Sons, 
1901),  Vol.  II.  pp.  33  sqq. 

217 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

English  spring,  why  should  the  one  effect  be  assigned 
to  "race"  and  the  other  to  experience?  It  is  all  a 
matter  of  the  mingling  of  different  environments;  and 
if  Chaucer  as  he  gets  older  pays  greater,  but  by  no  means 
sole,  attention  to  the  things  he  sees  and  hears  in  Eng- 
land, it  is  because  the  circumstances  of  his  own  life 
and  the  general  trend  of  social  development  at  the  time 
plunge  him  deeper  into  a  purely  English  environment. 
Moreover,  if  race  explains  genius,  then  obviously  genius 
should  explain  race.  If  we  can  foretell  a  man's  charac- 
teristics by  knowing  his  descent,  then  clearly  we  should 
be  able  to  deduce  his  race  from  his  characteristics.  But 
the  critics  are  still  doubtful  whether  Chaucer  was  an 
Englishman  or  a  Frenchman  by  racial  descent.1  The 
fact  is,  that  genius  is  a  special  product  of  no  particular 
race.  Nature,  prodigally  prolific  in  individual  differences, 
equipped  this  man  with  powers  different  from  those  of 
his  fellows,  and  these  depend  for  their  development 
entirely  upon  the  social  environment  which  operates 
upon  the  individual  characteristics.  And  to  that 
extent  there  is  truth  in  Dr.  Johnson's  oft-condemned 
definition  of  genius  as  "  a  mind  of  large  general  powers, 
accidentally  determined  to  some  particular  direction  " ; 
the  determining  factor  being,  of  course,  the  impulsion, 
in  this  direction  or  that,  of  the  social  environment.2 

"  My  Master  Chaucer  in  his  time 
After  the  French  he  did  it  rhyme," 

sings  Lydgate  of  the  poem  beginning — 

"Almighty  and  most  merciable  queen" 

and  if  that  particular  line  shows  no  particularly  French 
influence,  neither  can  it  be  claimed  as  particularly 
English.3  No  other  Englishman  of  that  date,  and  very 
few  of  later  date,  could  have  written  so  solemn  and  stately 
a  verse  as  that.  It  belongs  to  Geoffrey  Chaucer ;  that  it 

1  At  any  rate  on  the  spindle  side.  If  the  name  Chaucer  was  that 
of  a  Frenchman  who  came  over  with  the  Conqueror,  or  even  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.,  we  have  no  right  to  disregard  the  high  probability 
of  intermarriage  with  English  women. 

8  Lives  of  the  Poets  :  "  Cowlev." — "  The  true  genius  is  a  mind,"  etc. 

3  Chaucer  :  "  An  A.B.C."  (Skeat,  p.  80). 

218 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

is  written  in  English  after  a  French  model  does  not  pre- 
vent it  from  being  individual.  Individuality  belongs  to 
no  race  by  divine  right,  and  if  we  are  to  find  out  what 
is  specially  English  in  Chaucer,  we  must  attempt  to 
dissociate  the  results  of  his  English  environment  from 
the  results  of  the  French  and  Italian  environments 
from  whose  influence  he  never  wholly  escaped.  No 
critic  was  ever  so  wide  of  the  mark  as  Hazlitt  (whose 
Essay  on  Chaucer,  however,  is  undeservedly  neglected) 
when  he  says  that  "  in  our  author's  time  there  were 
none  of  the  commonplaces  of  poetical  diction,  no  re- 
flected lights  of  fancy,  no  borrowed  roseate  tints.  He 
was  obliged  to  inspect  things  for  himself."  So  far 
from  the  poet's  muse  not  being  hampered  by  the  tra- 
ditions of  an  artificial  school  of  verse,  the  danger  was, 
indeed,  at  first  that  the  poet  should  fall  too  much  under 
the  influence  of  that  artificial  school  of  verse ;  that  he 
should  become  merely  a  mirror  reflecting  the  French 
tradition  in  vogue  at  court;  that  he  would  simply  be 
content  to  depend  on  French  models,  repeating  all 
their  ideas  and  modes  of  expression.  These  French 
models  were  crowded  with  commonplaces  of  poetical 
thought  and  diction;  they  were  unreal  and  detached 
from  life,  as  courts  and  court  poets  tend  to  be.  Poetry 
has  become  with  them  largely  a  matter  of  phrases,  as 
it  became  in  later  times  with  the  successors  of  the 
school  of  Pope.  The  history  of  the  development  of 
Chaucer's  genius  is  not  the  history  of  the  development- 
of  any  racial  qualities  that  may  be  imputed  to  him,  but 
the  history  of  his  liberation  from  entire  thraldom  to  his 
courtly  environment  by  the  influence  of  his  Italian  and 
native  English  experience.  The  expanding  environment 
broadened  his  experience  and  allowed  his  individuality 
freer  power  of  choice  and  action. 

But  if  it  be  true  that  there  is  no  sign  of  what  is  called 
racial  poetry  in  Chaucer,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  he 
was  emphatically  the  founder  of  an  English  national 
poetry.  To  put  it  quite  simply,  this  is  due  to  the  two 
facts  :  (1)  that  he  gives  poetical  shape  to  the  scenes 
and  characters  and  events  which  exist  in  the  common 
environment  of  himself  and  other  Englishmen :  to 
scenes  and  characters  and  events  which  affect  them  as 

219 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

Englishmen,  and  in  which,  as  Englishmen,  they  feel 
that  common  interest  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all 
nationality;  and  (2)  that  he  deals  with  his  foreign 
material  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  part  and  parcel 
of  their  possession  as  Englishmen;  he  endues  it  with 
that  common  interest  which  appeals  to  Englishmen; 
he  makes  it  part  of  their  national  possession;  he 
nationalizes  it. 

It  would  be  futile  to  attempt  to  separate  these  two 
tendencies  in  Chaucer's  work.  The  history  of  his 
development  as  national  poet  is  the  history  of  the 
development  of  all  national  life,  whether  in  art  or 
experience.  It  is  the  history  of  a  process  which  com- 
mingles foreign  environments  with  the  existing  English 
environment,  and  thus  creates  a  new  and  more  spacious 
English  environment.  It  is  true  that,  as  Chaucer 
developed,  his  attention  was  directed  more  closely 
upon  the  scenes  and  characters  of  actual  English  life, 
as  may  be  proved  by  reference  to  the  "  Prologue  "  of 
the  Canterbury  Tales.  But  there  was  always  the 
commingling  of  environments,  even  in  the  "  Tales  " 
themselves.  No  single  story  in  that  lengthy  poeTn  can 
be  proved  to  be  the  poet's  own  invention.  He  goes  to 
the  Troubadours  for  epic  "  Chansons  de  geste  " ;  to 
the  Trouveres  for  tales  of  common  life;  to  Dante  for 
tragedy ;  to  Boccaccio  for  comedy ;  to  mediaeval  Latin 
literature  for  satire  on  women;  to  Travellers'  Tales, 
like  those  of  Marco  Polo,  lately  written,  for  incidents  of 
marvel  and  adventure;  to  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  for 
dainty  "  romances  "  of  love,  its  sufferings  and  rewards ; 
he  appropriates  Latin,  Italian  and  French  stories  be- 
longing to  that  floating,  anonymous  mass  of  tales  and 
traditions  which  had  found  their  way  into  the  conver- 
sation of  mediaeval  Europe  from  Classical  and  Oriental 
sources.  But  also  he  goes  for  subjects  to  the  real  life  of 
his  English  environment,  and  the  Canterbury  Tales  give 
convincing  proof  that  the  varying  experiences  through 
which  the  poet  had  passed  had  taught  him  at  last  to 
see  things  steadily  and  clearly  with  his  own  eyes,  and 
had  taught  him  no  less  effectively  the  artistic  skill  of 
transferring  what  he  sees  into  his  verses.  With  all  its 
indebtedness  to  others  for  subjects  and  incidents,  for 

220 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

tricks  of  artistry  and  methods  of  style,  there  never 
was  a  poem  which  to  the  same  degree  and  in  the 
same  convincing  manner  as  the  Canterbury  Tales  is 
inspired  by  the  freshness  and  charm  of  a  genius  feeling 
itself  in  contact  with  actual  life  and  transferring  that 
life  to  the  written  page  with  such  added  freshness  and 
charm. 

But  not  only  does  Chaucer  present  his  own  English 
atmosphere  in  this  engaging  and  convincing  ..->  manner, 
thus  laying  the  foundation  of  his  claim  to  be  a  national 
poet;  he  also  finds  means  to  combine  with  this  all  the 
different  elements  he  borrows  from  foreign  atmospheres, 
presenting  a  harmonized  and  unified  whole  to  be  a 
national  possession  for  Englishmen  for  ever.  It  is 
thus  he  nationalizes  poetry  to  harmonize  with  the 
growing  nationality  of  the  English  people.  That  growth 
of  common  interest  which  makes  a  nation  makes  also 
national  poetry.  No  longer  does  the  highest  art  make 
an  appeal  solely  to  courts  and  nobles — there  is  some- 
thing, indeed,  for  them,  as  there  is  also  something  for 
merchants,  priests,  tradesmen,  scholars  and  artizans;— 
every  aspect  of  the  national  life  is  presented  in  him,  and 
in  such  a  manner  that  every  rank  of  national  life  can 
easily  and  clearly  study  the  picture.  Chaucer's  achieve- 
ment, again,  was  to  have  founded  national  poetry — to 
have  created  a  rich  body  of  material  to  which,  when 
the  time  came,  the  most  truly  national  poets  appealed 
for  guidance  and  inspiration.  Whatever  other  elements 
were  to  be  transferred  to  our  English  national  atmo- 
sphere, that,  at  any  rate,  must  ever  form  a  part  of  it. 

We  fear  that  from  this  point  onwards  it  is  but  eluci- 
dating the  obvious  to  show  how  the  development  of 
our  literature — that  literature  specifically  called  Eng- 
lish— has  been  conditioned  by  the  constant  immission 
into  the  English  environment  of  more  or  less  powerful 
currents  of  foreign  influence.  This  is  not  the  same 
thing  as  saying  that  our  literature  is  foreign  literature ; 
although,  when  one  considers  how  seldom  it  has  been 
wanting  in  external  stimuli  of  inspiration,  material, 
form  and  direction,  one  might  be  tempted  to  assert 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  English  literature. 
Those,  indeed,  who,  while  denying  that  race  is  the 

221 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

foundation  of  nationality,  cannot  find  a  more  reasonable 
basis  for  that  phenomenon,  have  no  alternative  but  to 
conclude  that  English  literature  is  not  national  litera- 
ture, but  merely  a  branch  of  universal  literature 
accidentally  expressed  in  a  particular  language.  But 
just  a?  nationality  in  the  general  sense  is  a  conscious 
recognition  of  an  organic  continuity  of  common  interest, 
so  a  national  literature  is  the  artistic  expression  of  that 
common  ^nterest.  As  soon  as  a  foreign  influence  be- 
comes part  of  the  national  atmosphere  it  becomes  a 
common  national  possession,  and  the  extent  to  which 
it  becomes  a  common  national  possession  is  conditioned 
by  the  relation  which  the  existing  national  tradition 
assumes  towards  it.  The  conscious  feeling  of  con- 
tinuity, .therefore,  is  never  lost,  and  the  development  of 
literature  is  the  development  of  common  interest  to 
include  ever  wider  and  more  fruitful  fields;  and  as  one 
part  of  communal  growth  is  the  development,  through 
social  intercourse,  of  a  common  way  of  looking  at 
things,  so,  after  all,  foreign  influences  depend  for  their 
success  or  failure  in  affecting  a  national  literature  upon 
the  way  in  which  the  nation  regards  them.  The  Re- 
nascence influence  upon  England  produced  results 
totally  different  to  what  it  produced  in  France  or  in 
Spain ;  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  interesting 
aspects  of  the  national  literature  of  the  Age  of  Eliza- 
beth is  that  involved  in  a  study  of  the  way  in  which 
Spenser,  Shakespeare  and  Milton  combined  the  various 
currents  of  the  Renascence  influence  to  produce  a 
literature  which  was  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word 
national.  So  that  while  the  history  of  literature  is 
still,  in  England,  very  largely  the  history  of  foreign 
influences,  it  is,  from  Chaucer  onwards,  the  history  of 
foreign  influences  upon  a  stream  of  native  tradition 
powerful  enough  in  common  interest  to  maintain  certain 
special  characteristics  of  its  own,  while  welding  the 
foreign  material  more  and  more  successfully  into  har- 
mony with  its  own  tradition.  The  foreign  influence 
never  for  one  moment  ceases.  It  comes  pouring  in 
constantly  from  Italy,  France  and  Spain.  The  growth 
of  literature  from  Chaucer  to  Spenser  is  still  a  process 
in  which  a  foreign  influence  operates  upon  a  native 

222 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

element,  until  the  union  of  the  two,  by  the  success  of  its 
appeal  to  the  common  interest,  produces  a  literature 
which    bears    the    characteristic    marks    of    originality 
and  independence   in  spite   of  the   importance   of  the 
foreign  element.     Before  Chaucer,  however,  the  foreign 
influence    is     strong    and    all-pervasive,     almost     all- 
subversive,    and  we   have   seen  that  there   was   some 
danger  lest  the  native  English  literature  should,  even 
in  its  greatest  representative,  become  a  mere  re-echoing, 
of  foreign  words.     After  his  day  it  is  indirect  and  slow 
in  its  operation;  it  is  more  gradually,  and  therefore 
more  effectively,  absorbed  into  the  sphere  of  the  common 
national  interest;   and  the  consequence  is  that,  when 
again  a  period  of  great  literary  productiveness  arises, 
we   have   works   distinctively   national   in   a  far   more 
effective  sense  than  in  the  preceding  periods.     We  can 
easily  measure  the  extent  of  the  foreign  influence  by 
comparing  an  English  gentleman's  library  in  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century  with,  say,  the  library  of  Raleigh, 
Sidney,  or  Leicester  in  the  sixteenth.1     But  the  influence 
is  most  conspicuous  in  Spenser,  who,  nevertheless,  is 
more  completely  and  comprehensively  a  national  poet 
than    even    Chaucer    in    the    Canterbury    Tales.     But 
Spenser  is  far  too  great  a  figure,  and  the  age  to  which 
he  belongs   is  far  too  important  in  the  story  of  our 
national  literature,  that  we  should  make  apology  for 
trying  to  corroborate  our  thesis  by  a  closer  examination 
both  of  Spenser  and  the  illustrious  epoch  which  formed 
his  appropriate  environment. 

1  The  Paston  Letters,  1422-1509,  edited  by  James  Gairdner  of  the 
Public  Record  Office,  1872.  One  of  the  letters  contains  an  account 
of  an  English  gentleman's  library  in  the  Reign  of  Edward  IV.  (1461- 
1483).  The  library  consisted  of  :  (1)  Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
(2)  Chaucer's  Parliament  of  Fowls  (Parlement  of  Byrdes),  (3)  Lydgate's 
Temple  of  Glass,  (4)  Alain  Chartier's  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci,  (5)  Guy, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  (6)  Guy  of  Colbrond,  (7)  Sir  Oawaine  and  the  Green 
Knight,  (8)  The  Death  of  King  Arthur,  (9)  King  Richard  Cosur  de  Lion 
(10),  (11),  (12)  Cicero,  De  Senectute,  De  Amicitia,  De  Sapientia ;  and 
some  few  others.  (See  Gairdner 's  edition,  Vol.  III.  pp.  300-2,  The 
Inventory  off  Englysshe  Boks  off  John .) 


223 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Influence  of  the  Renascence  as  a  literary  Movement  in  England — 
Its  three  main  Currents  :  Classical,  Italian,  Romantic — Spenser  : 
the  typical  Representative  of  the  Elizabethan  Age  in  Literature — 
He  harmonizes  into  a  new  national  Unity  the  domestic  Tradition 
and  the  foreign  Traditions  influencing  it — Spanish  Influence  on 
English  Literature — General  Indebtedness  of  our  national  Litera- 
ture to  foreign  Sources — Influence  of  Literature  in  extending  the 
Spheres  of  the  common  Interests  of  Nations — The  "  Literary 
Confederation  of  Europe." 

WE  have  already  seen  that  the  growth  of  literature 
from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chaucer  is  a  process 
by  which  various  environmental  influences,  some  native, 
some  foreign,  operate  to  produce  a  body  of  work  which 
can  be  described  with  truth  as  definitely  and  character- 
istically English.  The  development  of  literature  from 
Chaucer  to  Spenser  is,  in  like  manner,  a  process  in  which 
this  definite  and  characteristic  national  result  is  sub- 
jected to  other  environmental  influences,  some  foreign, 
some  native,  until  the  fusion  of  the  separate  elements 
again  produces  a  great  literature,  national  in  its  inde- 
pendence and  originality  in  spite  of  the  formative  power 
of  the  foreign  elements.  The  scope  and  proportions  of 
this  book  will  not  admit  of  any  detailed  illustration  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  great  external  influences 
operated  upon  the  national  atmosphere  from  the  four- 
teenth to  the  sixteenth  century;  and  the  writer  must 
perforce  be  content  to  do  little  more  than  emphasize, 
from  his  point  of  view,  the  generally  accepted  thesis 
that  the  national  literature  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth  was 
largely  inspired  and  moulded  by  influences  emanating 
from  the  Italy  of  the  Renascence.  This  does  not  mean, 
of  course,  that  English  literature  was  Italian,  any  more 
than  French,  German,  Spanish,  Russian  or  Bohemian 
literature  was  Italian  because  each  of  them  was  affected 
by  the  Italian  Renascence.  It  chiefly  means  that  in 

224 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

England  the  experiences,  thoughts  and  emotions  of 
which  life  was  made,  found  artistic  expression  in 
forms  which  Italian  writers  had  proved  to  be  beautiful 
and  effective  for  their  purpose.  Human  experiences, 
thought  and  emotions  are  not  the  special  prerogative 
of  any  nation;  it  is  the  manner  of  their  exhibition 
in  active  or  passive  life  that  marks  the  national 
character;  and  from  this  point  of  view  a  very  dis- 
tinctive and  enduring  influence  was  exercised  by  the 
Italian  Renascence  upon  the  evolution  of  literature  in 
England. 

But  it  would  be  a  profound  mistake  to  suggest  that 
the  success  of  the  Italian  influence  upon  English  litera- 
ture was  a  question  of  literary  influence  alone.  The 
Italian  Renascence  was  in  intimate  relationship  with 
vital  and  fundamental  human  emotions  and  ideas. 
The  Renascence  has  been  too  often  and  too  readily 
regarded  as  a  purely  literary  movement,  as  if  it  -were 
the  "  new  learning  "  and  nothing  else.  But  even  had 
it  expressed  itself  in  literature  alone,  a  purely  literary 
movement  it  could  never  have  been.  It  was,  in  essence, 
a  revolt  against  tyranny  in  the  sphere  of  the  intellect, 
in  the  sphere  of  the  emotions,  and  in  the  sphere  of 
conduct;  and  it  was  because  the  literary  methods  and 
forms  of  the  Italian  Renascence  gave  cogent  expression 
to  this  sense  of  human  revolt  that  they  had  so  great 
an  influence  in  inspiring  and  regulating  the  literary 
expression  of  the  revolt  in  countries  other  than  Italy. 
The  practical  re-discovery  of  the  literatures  of  Greece 
and  Rome  which  initiates  the  Renascence  is  inseparably 
associated  with  the  great  literary  names  of  Petrarch 
and  Boccaccio.  Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  before  the  Renascence  the  literature  of  Mediaeval 
Europe  had  been  predominantly  theological  in  tone 
and  substance.  So  far  as  literature  was  concerned,  it 
was  the  constant  policy  of  the  Chjirch  to  devote  it 
entirely  to  religious  ends.  Bishop  Fulbert  of  Chartres 
in  the  eleventh  century  expressly  asserted  that  "  litera- 
ture is  only  worth  cultivating  in  so  far  as  it  ministers 
to  a  man's  knowledge  of  divine  things.  It  is  the  prime 
duty  of  life  to  prepare  for  the  eternal  fatherland  here- 
after. Without  this  presiding  thought  there  is  infinite 
Q  225 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

danger  in  the  study  of  Letters."  1  Even  in  dealing  with 
so  Pagan  a  production  as  the  Celtic  legends  of  King 
Arthur,  a  learned  cleric  spiritualized  the  whole  cycle 
by  connecting  it  with  the  Christian  legend  of  the  "  Holy 
Grail  " ;  and  the  Church  claimed  for  its  own  the  free- 
thinking,  profane,  even  blasphemous  Romaunt  of  the 
Rose  by  "  baptizing  it,"  as  Lowell  says,  "  with  the 
holy  water  of  allegory."  2  Literature,  as  well  as  philo- 
sophy, was  ancillary  to  theology;  and  as  it  was  the 
Renascence  which  liberated  men's  minds  from  this 
thraldom  it  is  natural  to  have  emphasized  its  importance 
as  a  purely  literary  movement. 

What  a  change  was  effected  can  be  seen  at  a  glance 
when  we  come  to  the  English  literature  of  the  age  of 
Elizabeth.1  Literature  is  no  longer  a  mere  guide  to  the 
eternal  fatherland  hereafter ;  it  is  a  vivid  representation 
in  Drama,  Epic  and  Lyric,  History  and  Philosophy,  of 
the  wealth  and  wonder,  the  subtlety  and  the  mystery, 
the  significance  and  the  usefulness,  of  the  present  life 
in  all  its  variegated  manifestations.  Even  professedly 
religious  literature  is  less  theological  than  ethical;  it 
purports  to  be  a  guide  to  this  life  rather  than  a  finger- 
post to  the  eternal  fatherland  hereafter.  Spenser, 
Shakespeare,  Sidney,  Bacon — how  far  do  they  illustrate 
Bishop  Fulbert's  definition  of  the  purpose  of  literature  ? 
And  naturally,  in  England  as  elsewhere,  the  emancipation 
had  been  the  work  of  scholars  and  men  of  letters  who 
first  learned  the  neW  wisdom  in  Italy  and  then  returned 
home  to  permeate  English  thought  with  Italian  ideas. 
The  process  by  which  this  was  accomplished  is  not 
marked  by  many  dramatic  episodes;  it  is  the  record 

1  Reformation  and  Renascence  (circa  1377-1610),   by  J.  M.   Stone 
(London  :  Duckworth  &  Co.,  1904).    This  work,  although  admittedly 
written  "  from  the  standpoint  of  the  old  religion,"  is  conspicuous  for 
its  broad  sympathies  and  liberal  judgments. 

2  Walter  Map,   appointed  Archdeacon  of   Oxford   1196.      Lowell, 
Essay  on  "  Chaucer  "  in  My  Study  Windows  (Camelot  Edition,  p.  259). 
With  reference  to  Map  and  the   "  Holy  Grail "    the  Encydopsedia 
Britannica  says  (9th  Ed.,  Vol.  VIII.  p.  408) :  "A  cycle  of  romance, 
which  till  now  had  breathed  only  of  revenge,  slaughter,  race-hatreds, 
unlawful  love,  magic,  and  witchcraft,  becomes  transformed  in  a  few 
years  into  a  series  of  mystical  legends,  symbolizing  and  teaching  one 
of  the  profoundest  dogmas  of  the  Catholic  creed."     Walter  Map  wrote 
in  French. 

226 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

of  long,  slow,  patient  and  continuous  work,  which  is 
not  much  in  men's  thoughts  to-day,  but  which  no  man 
has  a  right  to  forget  who  has  read  a  Canto  of  the  Faerie 
Queene,  an  Act  of  the  Merchant  of  Venice,  or  a  Book  of 
Paradise  Lost.  From  1450  onwards  there  is  a  constant 
stream  of  scholars  coming  and  going  between  Oxford 
and  Padua  and  Bologna  and  Ferrara;  men  like  Grey, 
Free,  Flemming,  Gunthorpe  and  Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Wor- 
cester, who  recognized  that  in  Italy  alone,  and  from 
Italian  teachers,  was  it  possible  to  see  the  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome  in  its  true  light,  and  to  study  that 
literature,  not  for  the  purpose  of  finding  in  it  allegorical 
explanations  of  theology,  but  of  applying  its  methods 
to  the  criticism  of  modern  life,  untrammelled  by  monas- 
tical  scholasticism  and  theological  pedantry.  Before 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  Linacre  and 
Grocyn  learning  under  Politian  at  Florence  that  human- 
ism which  they  brought  back  to  Oxford  to  inspire  the 
work  and  mould  the  character  of  More  and  Colet,  not 
to  speak  of  Erasmus,  who,  although  by  birth  a  foreigner, 
was  quite  at  home  in  English  schools  and  English  houses 
and  English  society  in  general.  With  Mote  and  Colet 
we  attain  the  final  triumph  of  humanism  against 
scholasticism,  or  the  pursuit  of  human  or  humane 
letters  as  against  ecclesiastical.  More  was  the  great 
connecting  link  between  university  and  court,  and  his 
task  was  to  spread  the  atmosphere  of  the  Renascence 
among  those  aristocratical  circles  from  which  it  had 
hitherto  been  absent.1  The  influence  of  the  Italian 
Renascence  thus  transferred  to  Elizabethan  England 
was  strengthened  in  many  individual  cases  by  personal 
knowledge  of  Italian  culture  gained  at  Italian  univer- 
sities and  in  the  courts  of  Italian  princes.  But  as  a 
stream  of  literary  inspiration  it  was,  more  or  less,  felt 
by  every  participant  in  English  education. 

It  is  always  difficult  to  define  literary  phrases  with 
mathematical  accuracy;  to  make  verbal  distinctions 
which  carry  conviction  with  them  as  being  precisely 
representative  of  the  facts.  And  this  difficulty  exists 

1  For  these  details  and  a  great  many  more  see  The  Italian  Renais- 
sance in  England,  a  scholarly  and  learned  series  of  studies  by  Mr.  Lewis 
Einstein  (New  York  Press  :  The  Columbia  University,  1902). 

227 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

with  special  force  when  the  material  of  definition  is  a 
literature  so  rich  and  splendid,  and  so  overpowering 
in  its  complexity  and  many-sidedness,  as  English  litera- 
ture in  the  Age  of  Elizabeth.  But,  speaking  under  this 
sense  of  the  final  inadequacy  of  descriptive  definitions  in 
such  a  matter,  it  may  conveniently  be  asserted  that  the 
effect  of  the  Renascence  as  a  literary  movement  was  felt 
in  England  in  three  main  directions,  the  facts  of  which 
may  be  grouped  under  the  three  headings  of  Classical, 
Italian,  and  Romantic.  If  one  tendency  is  described  as 
specifically  Italian  it  is  for  reasons  which  do  not  diminish 
the  importance  of  Italian  influence  over  the  other  two. 

Classical. — As  to  the  'great  popularity  and  influence 
of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  at  the  time  there  can  be 
no  question.  In  the  year  1570  Roger  Ascham  complained 
in  his  Schoolmaster  that  people  made  more  account  of 
an  Essay  by  Cicero  than  they  did  of  an  Epistle  by 
St.  Paul,  and,  so  far  as  educated  people  were  concerned, 
there  was  truth  in  the  charge.1  Queen  Elizabeth  was 
not  a  religious  woman — she  was  too  much  the  pure 
Italian  type  of  Prince  for  that — but  she  could  read  the 
New  Testament  in  the  original ;  could  translate  Sopho- 
cles and  Demosthenes ;  could  "  rub  up  her  musty 
Greek  "  to  dispute  points  of  scholarship  with  her  bishops 
and  courtiers.2  Lady  Jane  Grey,  the  Duchess  of 
Norfolk,  the  Countess  of  Arundel,  and  many  other 
great  ladies  of  the  time,  were  quite  at  home  in  the 
Greek  of  Plato  or  Xenophon,  or  the  naughty  hexameters 
or  hendecasylla^es  of  Ovid  or  Catullus.  For  those 
who  could  not  read  the  original  there  was  a  steady 
stream  of  translations.  Even  if  a  man  had  "  small 
Latin  and  less  Greek  "  he  could  not  escape  the  current, 
and  there  is  not  an  author  who  is  not  steeped  in  Classical 
history,  poetry  and  philosophy,  Shakespeare  as  much  as 
Jonson,  Spenser  as  much  as  Bacon,  Marlowe  as  much 
as  "  Democritus  Junior."  But  the  special  significance 
of  the  study  of  Classical  literature  in  those  days  was 
that  it  was  no  longer  the  pedantic  trifling  of  monks  and 

1  This  is  reminiscent  of  the  true  spirit  of  the  Italian  Renascence, 
which  drove  a  Cardinal  from  St.  Paul's  writings  lest  they  should  spoil 
his  style  ! 

*  Green's  Short  History,  p.  312. 

228 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

bookworms ;  but  an  earnest  and  eager  investigation  by 
masters  of  affairs,  polished  men  of  the  world,  who  went 
to  Greece  and  Rome  for  lessons  of  ethical  and  political 
wisdom,  and  not  for  material  to  write  a  commentary 
upon  a  particle,  or  a  folio  upon  the  fall  of  an  accent. 
It  was  the  study  by  living  men  of  a  living  literature, 
the  exciting  and  inspiring  record  of  the  deeds  of  men 
who  had  once  lived  themselves.  In  our  own  day  we 
have  studied  Classical  literature  with  greater  closeness 
and  finer  textual  accuracy,  but  we  have  not  studied  it 
with  so  keen  a  perception  of  its  living  value,  until, 
perhaps,  Prof.  Gilbert  Murray  taught  us  the  meaning 
of  Euripides.  To  men  who  read  the  Classics  in  that 
spirit  the  cloistered  ignorance  of  Medievalism  soon 
became  a  dream  that  vanishes  at  daybreak;  and  it  is 
natural  that  already  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  the  old 
scholasticism  should  have  disappeared  from  our  uni- 
versities, scattered  by  the  fresh  breezes  that  blew  from 
Italy.  The  transformation  effected  in  the  study  of 
Classical  literature  by  the  Renascence  is  a  vivid  example 
of  the  way  in  which  a  foreign  atmosphere  commingles 
with  an  established  national  tradition  to  produce  an 
entire  change  of  outlook  and  practice;  to  introduce, 
in  fact,  a  new  tradition  to  form  part  of  the  national 
achievement  and  be  handed  down  as  a  national  legacy. 
Italian. — But  the  specifically  Italian  influence  was  no 
less  marked  than  the  Classical  influence  as  coloured  by 
Italian  thought  and  emotion.  Like  all  other  countries 
of  Europe,  we  accepted  Machiavellianism  as  a  finished 
system  of  political  philosophy  from  Italy;  and  as  on 
the  political  side  it  made  force  and  craft  the  ruling 
principles  of  action,  so  on  the  social  side  it  gave  material 
interests  priority  over  spiritual. 

"  Assist  us  to  accomplish  all  our  ends, 
And  sanctify  whatever  means  we  use 
To  gain  them "  1 

was  no  less  the  prayer  of  Machiavelli's  princes  and 
politicians  than  it  was  of  such  ecclesiastics  as  the  bishop 
who  ordered  his  tomb  in  St.  Praxed's  Church.  "  The 
ideal  to  which  all  efforts  were  turning,  on  which  all 

1  Sheridan's  The  Critic,  Act  II.  sc.  ii, 
229 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

thoughts  depended,  was  the  strong  and  happy  man, 
possessing  all  the  powers  to  accomplish  all  his  wishes, 
and  disposed  to  use  them  in  pursuit  of  his  happiness." 
This  ideal  stamped  itself  deeply  upon  the  political  and 
social  life  of  Elizabethan  England.  Elizabeth  herself, 
both  as  an  individual  and  a  monarch,  was  a  child  of 
the  unchecked  Italian  Renascence ;  and  as  she  fed  her 
individual  tastes  upon  the  poetry  of  Ariosto  and  Tasso, 
so  she  and  her  statesmen  guided  their  actions  upon  the 
system  of  Machiavelli.  The  influence  of  Machiavellianism 
also  coloured  our  literature — instance  Bacon's  Essays 
and  their  many  imitations.  Bacon  is  even  plus  quam 
Machiavellian,  as  he  extends  to  the  sphere  of  private 
life  principles  and  maxims  which  the  Italian  confined  to 
politics. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  this  direction  that  specifically 
Italian  influence  was  revived;  Italian  literature  was 
generally  studied  both  in  the  original  and  in  transla- 
tions. Gosson's  lengthy  tirade  against  the  literary, 
theatrical  and  musical  abuses  of  his  day  particularly 
inveighs  against  the  "  wantonnesse "  of  Italy  as  one 
of  the  foreign  elements  that  have  undermined  "  the 
olde  discipline  of  England."  2  But,  of  course,  there  were 
other  tendencies.  Wyat  and  Surrey,  having  "  tasted 
the  sweet  and  stately  manners  and  stile  of  the  Italian 
poesie,  greatly  polished  our  rude  and  homely  manner  of 
vulgar  poesie."  3  They  introduced  the  Sonnet  and  the 
Blank  Verse  from  Italy,  innovations  whose  formative 
influence  on  the  expression  of  imagination,  intelligence, 
passion  and  philosophy  by  English  poets  can  never  be 
measured.- 

1  Green's  Short  History.    Cf .  The  Skeptics  of  the  Italian  Renaissance, 
by  the  Rev.  John  Owen  (London  :  Swan  Sonnenschein,  1893).     "  Hence, 
if  Shakspere  is — to  use  a  phrase  of  Jacobi's — '  a  Christian  in  heart,  in 
intellect  he  is  a  Pagan ' ;  and  his  Paganism  has  most  of  the  attributes 
of  the  Pvenaissance  product  of  the  same  name — a  clear  perception  and 
forcible  grasp  of  terrestrial  realities  and  enjoyments,  combined  with  a 
contemptuous  ignoring  of  speculative  truths,  whether  philosophical 
or  theological,"  p.  225. 

2  English  Reprints.     Stephen  Gosson,  The  Schools  of  Abuse,  1579, 
etc.,  by  Edward  Arber  (London :   Alex.  Murray  &  Son,  March  1869). 
Large  Paper  Edition,  p.  34. 

3  Puttenham,  Art  of  English  Poesie  (1589),  a  passage  quoted  in  every 
handbook  of  English  literature. 

230 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Romantic. — F.    Schlegcl   wrote   to   his   brother  :    "  I 
cannot  send  you  my  explanation  of  '  Romantic  '  because 
it   is   125   pages  long " ;   and,   indeed,   it   would  have 
required  many  more  pages  than  125,  and  a  much  more 
lucid  writer  than  the  younger  of  the  famous  pair,  to 
explain   what  the   German   "  Romantic "   was  in   the 
late  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  century,  or  even 
what  the  English  "  Romantic  "  was  when  the  German 
atmosphere  had  commingled  with  our  own.1     But  fortu- 
nately the  problem  is  less  obscure  in  the  Elizabethan 
epoch,  although  not  without  its  special  difficulty  and 
delicacy.     While  still  shunning  any  tendency  to  mathe- 
matical precision  in  defining  terms  of  literary  history, 
we  may  say  that  the  "  Romantic  "  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  a  movement  concerned  with  giving  artistic 
expression  to  the  old  legends  of  the  Arthurian  type 
and  to  the  world  of  "  Faerie  "  in  which  they  accom- 
plished their  imaginary  careers.     The  fact  that  a  good 
deal  of  this  legendary  lore  can  be  traced  to  the  Roman- 
ized "  Celts  "  of  Britain  is  probably  responsible  for  the 
assertions  of  a  number  of  critics  that  Shakespeare  and 
the  Elizabethans  in  general  are  marked  by  the  posses- 
sion of  many  "  Celtic  "  qualities.     Prof.  Henry  Morley 
in  England  and  M.  Augustin  Filon  in  France  maintain 
this  view,  and  attribute  it  to  an  infiltration  of  Celtic 
blood  into  the  veins  of  the  Elizabethans,  forgetting  that 
the  vices  and  virtues  which  they  assign  to  the  Celtic 
"  race  "  are  vices  and  virtues  of  which  any  son  of  man 
is  capable,  and  which  he  exhibits  if  the  environment 
evokes  them.     Enthusiasm  and  sensuality;  irritability 
and  gaiety ;  devotion  to  war,  women,  music ;  the  absence 
of  any  Teutonic  worrying  about  his  fate  in  the  universe ; 
a  vague  instinct  of  revolt  and  irreligion;    no  return  to 
Faith  by  peaceful  contemplation  of  the  works  of  God— 
these  are  the  qualities  of  the  "  Celtic  race."     Moreover, 
without  Latin  education  or  Saxon  guidance,  the  Celt 
is   incapable    of    self-control    or    self-perfection.2    But 

1  A  History  of  German  Literature,  by  Calvin  Thomas,  LL.D.  (London  : 
Wm.  Heinemann,  1909),  p.  311. 

2  Histoire  de  la  Litterature  Anglaise,  par  Augustin  Filon  (Hachette, 
1905),  p.  12.     See  also  A  First  Sketch  of  English  Literature,  by  Henry 
Morley  (Cassell  &  Co.,  1890),  p.  8.     Prof.  Morley  says :  "  Influence  of 

231 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

these  qualities  are  human  qualities;  they  belong  to 
no  race  as  such ;  but  of  any  race  some  members  possess 
them,  or  some  of  them,  while  others  do  not  possess  all 
of  them,  and  may  not  possess  any  of  them.  We  are 
again  inevitably  driven  to  continuity  of  tradition,  and 
not  to  continuity  of  racial  descent,  to  explain  con- 
tinuity of  qualities.  If  the  Elizabethans  exhibit  any 
qualities  in  a  specially  Celtic  form,  it  must  be  due  either 
to  the  fact  that  they  were  educated  in  parts  of  the 
country  where  a  Celtic  population  had  been  in  continuous 
occupation  and  had  handed  down  their  traditional 
habits  in  the  usual  way;  or  else  to  the  fact  that  a 
stream  of  Celtic  influence  had  poured  into  their  national 
atmosphere  from  another  source.  But  of  the  former 
there  is  no  evidence.  The  great  stream  of  Celtic  influence 
in  Elizabeth's  time  is  supposed  to  be  formed  of  the 
ideas  and  qualities  introduced  in  the  Arthurian  and 
similar  legends.  But  there  is  no  record  of  any  con- 
tinuous existence  of  this  tradition  and  tendency  in 
England  itself.  There  may  have  been  legends  recorded 
generation  after  generation  in  particular  families;  but 
speaking  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  they  made  acquaint- 
ance with  the  legends  and  tales  of  Arthurian  chivalry 
and  "  Faerie  "  from  foreign  sources.  Admitting,  as  we 
may  with  probability,  but  not  with  certainty,  that  the 
Arthurian  legends  found  their  way  from  Britain  into 
Brittany  with  British  refugees  from  Saxon  pirates  and 
settlers,  it  is  certain  that  they  only  reached  England 
again  in  a  literary  form  from  Normandy.  The  develop- 
ment of  this  literature  into  the  full  splendour  of  chivalry 
was  the  work  of  the  Normans,  and  not  of  the  Celtic 
Britons  at  all.  Whether  the  subject  is  Arthur,  son  of 
Pendragon,  and  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  Merlin, 

the  Celt  on  English^literatureYproceeds^not  from  example  set  by  one 
people*andffollowed^by|another,  but  in  the|way  o£  nature,  by  estab- 
lishment of  blood  relationship,  and  the  transmission  of  modified  and 
blended  character  to  a  succeeding  generation." — This  theory  recalls 
the  way  of  the  Ulster  men  (mentioned  by  Morley  on  p.  11),  who  "  mixed 
the  brains  of  their  slain  enemies  with  lime  and  played  with  the  hard 
balls  they  made  of  them.  Such  a  brainstone  is  said  to  have  gone 
through  the  skull  of  Conchobar,  who  lived  afterwards  seven  years 
with  two  brains  in  his  head,  always  sitting  very  still,  because  it  would 
be  death  to  shake  himself  "  1 

232 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

Tristram,  Lancelot,  Galahad  and  Percival ;  whether  the 
hero  is  Amadis  of  Gaul,  Amadis  of  Scotland,  or  Amadis 
of  Greece;  Florismart  of  Hyrcania,  Galaor,  Florestan, 
or  Esplandian ;  or  whether  Charlemagne  and  his  Paladins 
are  the  theme  of  song  or  tale;  whether  Norfnandy  or 
France  or  Spain  or  England,  or  some  quaintly  concocted 
mixture  of  geographical  districts  known,  guessed  at,  or 
imagined,  is  the  scene  of  the  fabulous  history  :  the  atmo- 
sphere which  enwraps  them  is  unlike  anything  ever 
before  known  in  England,  and  such  influence  as  they 
had  upon  the  development  of  the  English  character 
cannot  possibly  be  assigned  to  the  originality  of  the 
native  genius.  But  that  the  qualities  of  character 
lauded  and  exemplified  in  them  were  readily  admitted 
into  the  native  tradition  cannot  be  doubted  by  those 
who  reflect  on  the  wide  and  lasting  popularity  obtained 
by  these  productions  in  England.  Even  in  the  four- 
teenth century  an  interesting  attempt  was  made  to 
wed  this  new  atmosphere  of  Romance  and  Chivalry  to 
the  old  Saxon  poetic  forms;  and  in  the  story  of  Sir 
Gawayn  and  the  Green  Knight  the  metre  of  Beowulf 
is  made  resplendent  with  the  names  of  Camelot,  and 
Agravaine,  and  Arthur,  and  Guenevere  herself — 

"  The  most  kyd  knightes  under  Kryste  selven, 

And  the  lovelokkest  ladies  that  ever  lif  haden, 
K        And  he  the  comlokest  Kyng  that  the  Court  haldis."  1 

But  this  was  an  experiment  out  of  the  main  current  of 
our  literary  development,  and  when  Chaucer  had  com- 
bined the  French  and  Italian  traditions  with  the  native 
English,  a  full  appeal  could  only  be  made  to  the  nation 
by  those  who  accepted  the  tradition  as  he  established 
it.  It  was  with  Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur,  printed  by 
Caxton  in  1485,  that  the  romantic  and  chivalrous  tradi- 
tion began  to  make  that  general  appeal  which  it  still 
makes  to-day.  It  was  from  this  time  onwards  that 
there  was  placed  before  the  public  eye  an  ideal  of 
manly  conduct  which  differed  from  the  ideal  of  Beowulf 
not  so  much  by  opposition  as  by  amplification  and 
addition.  Courtesy  to  friends  was  extended  into  chivalry 

1  "  Sir  Gawayn  and  the  Green  Knight,"  from  the  Oxford  Treasury 
of  English  Literature  (1906),  .p.  58. 

233 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

to  foes;  pride  in  great  personal  achievements  rested 
rather  upon  modest  consciousness  of  worth  than  upon 
insistent  demands  for  its  public  recognition;  respect 
towards  woman  is  tinged  with  a  tender  delicacy  which 
extends  even  to  the  sinner  in  virtue  of  her  womanhood ; 
and,  above  all,  we  have  that  conception  of  "  honour  " 
which,  undefinable  as  it  is  in  other  words,  has  lasted 
unchanged  in  meaning  for  several  centuries.  These  and 
other  qualities  were  no  gift  of  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  blood  "  ; 
they  were  the  common  possession  of  all  the  legends  and 
tales  of  chivalry ;  and  whatever  was  their  origin,  whether 
in  the  actual  deeds  of  certain  Christian  knights,  or  in 
the  European  adoption  of  Arabian  modes  of  thought 
and  emotion,  they  furnish  a  new  stream  of  literary  and 
ethical  inspiration  to  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  what- 
ever races  constitute  them.  These  qualities  naturally 
assumed  different  forms  in  the  different  countries  of 
their  adoption;  but  the  differences  do  not  correspond 
with  differences  of  racial  origin.  The  extent  to  which 
and  the  manner  in  which  new  qualities  are  embodied 
in  a  national  tradition  depend  upon  the  method  of 
their  presentment  to  the  people,  and  upon  the  readi- 
ness of  the  old  tradition  to  accept  the  newer  ideas; 
and  this  is  the  reason  that  the  notions  of  chivalr}* 
found  a  different  reception  and  a  different  expression 
in  every  different  country.  The  Celtic  Peredur,  the 
Norman  Perceval,  the  German  Parzival,  three  profoundly 
different  national  reproductions  of  the  same  story,  are 
explicable,  not  by  differences  of  race — which  probably 
do  not  exist — but  by  differences  in  the  mental  and 
emotional  condition  to  which  their  previous  experiences 
had  brought  the  separate  peoples,  and  by  the  manner 
in  which  the  tellers  of  the  story — the  Chretiens  de  Troyes 
and  the  Wolfram  von  Eschenbachs — dress  up  the 
incidents  for  the  audience  to  which  they  appeal.  In 
England,  at  any  rate,  the  national  tradition  and  the 
national  character  were  greatly  modified  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  qualities  of  the  chivalrous  ideal ;  and  the 
effect  is  a  matter  of  pure  historical  experience  which 
excludes  the  fantastic  play  of  any  racial  hypothesis 
whatever. 

But  in   addition  to  the  Norman-French  stream   of 

234 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

chivalric  influence  which  flowed  directly  to  our  shores, 
there  was  also  a  current  which,  arising  in  the  same 
sources,  only  reached  us  after  bathing  Italy  in  its 
waters.  The  deeds  of  Charlemagne  and  his  Paladins, 
and  not  the  "  Celtic "  legends  of  King  Arthur,  sup- 
plied the  main  stream  of  inspiration  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  literature  of  Romance  in  Italy.  The  record 
of  these  deeds  was  given  in  the  famous  Chanson  de 
Roland,  which,  in  its  present  form,  was  of  Norman- 
French  origin  in  England,  where  it  appeared  between 
1066  and  1095.  The  story  was  also  told  in  the  Latin 
Chronicle  attributed  to  Turpin,  Archbishop  of  Rheims 
in  the  eighth  century,  but  actually  written  in  the 
eleventh  century,  the  second  half  by  a  monk  of  Vienne. 
The  common  virtues  of  chivalry,  especially  the  high 
and  tender  estimate  of  woman,  marked  this  branch  of 
Romantic  literature.  The  tradition  thus  formed  was 
modified  by  the  general  effect  of  the  Italian  Rena- 
scence in  the  fifteenth  century,  an  effect  clearly  expressed 
in  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore,  in  which  the  popular 
religious  belief  is  treated  to  sarcasm  and  lip-service 
alternately,  and  in  which,  as  Dr.  Garnett  says,  "  Pulci's 
opinions  are  probably  expressed  by  Astaroth,  a  devil 
introduced  to  aid  the  Paladins  and  talk  divinity."1 
Boiardo's  Orlando  Innamorato  continued  and  developed 
the  Romantic  tradition,  with  its  magic  arms,  its  en- 
chanted philtres,  its  labyrinthine  adventures,  its  per- 
petual novelties  of  incident,  its  mixture  of  heroic  valour 
with  tender  pathos;  until  finally  we  come  to  Ariosto 
and  Tasso,  and  the  full  flow  of  Italian  Romantic  in- 
spiration into  England.  It  would  be  as  interesting  as 
it  would  be  easy  to  trace  the  influence  exercised  upon 
English  authors  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  by  particular 
aspects  of  Italian  Romantic  literature.  Sidney's 
Arcadia,  for  example,  is  simply  a  bower  in  the  garden 
of  Ariosto,  and  shows  in  unrestrained  luxuriance  that 
Italian  tendency  to  unchecked  fantasy  which,  how- 
ever, we  shall  see  quite  as  clearly,  though  under  greater 
restraint,  in  Spenser,  to  whom  as  the  exponent  and 
harmonizer  of  all  the  Renascence  influences  with  the 

1  A  History  of  Italian  Literature,  by  Richard  Garnett,  C,B.,  LL.D. 
(London:    Wm.  Heineniann,  1898),  p.  129. 

235 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

native    Chaucerian   tradition,    we   now   turn   for   brief 
consideration. 

The  significance  of  Spenser  as  a  national  poet  consists 
in  the  fact  that  he  harmonizes  and  unifies  all  the  various 
influences  operating  upon  his  period  into  a  finished 
artistic  form,  which  makes  a  special  appeal  to  English- 
men, not  only  because  it  uses  their  language,  but  also 
because  it  is  instinct  with  patriotic  and  other  sympathies 
which  spring  out  of  their  common  interest  in  a  certain 
sphere  of  ideas,,  emotions  and  experiences.  Like  Chaucer, 
admittedly  his  teacher  and  inspirer  in  many  respects, 
he  presents  his  foreign  material  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  make  it  part  of  the  national  possession,  and  thus 
combines  it  with  the  existing  national  tradition,  in 
order  to  make  a  fuller  and  richer  legacy  for  his  national 
successors.  It  is  quite  possible  to  imagine  a  poet — 
perhaps  Shakespeare  was  such  a  one — dowered  by 
Nature,  in  her  infinite  capacity  for  individual  differen- 
tiation, with  a  mind  so  flexible  and  many-sided  as  to 
evolve  greatness  out  of  any  environment.  It  may  be 
true,  as  Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson  says,  that  "  ^Eschylus 
in  Egypt  and  Aristophanes  in  Persia  must  have  'died 
with  all  their  drama  in  them  " ; 1  but  it  may  also  be 
true  that  the  native  force  and  subtlety  which  expressed 
themselves  in  tragedy  and  comedy  in  the  drama- 
nurturing  atmosphere  of  Athens  might  have  been 
directed  to  ends  of  equal  grandeur  in  Memphis  and 
Babylon.  Shakespeare  himself,  although  in  such  in- 
timate sympathy  with  his  immediate  environment  that 
he  "  Londonizes  his  Romans,"  always  suggests  the 
impression  that  he  uses  the  currents,  tendencies  and 
.influences  of  his  time  as  mere  accidental  illustrations 
of  his  thought;  that  any  other  civilization  would  have 
given  him  others  equally  serviceable  and  equally  sub- 
missive to  his  triumphant  egotism.  He  seems  to 
dominate  his  environment,  and  to  regard  the  great 
age  and  country  in  which  he  lived  as  a  tiny  corner  in 
the  world  of  experience  imaged  in  his  brain.  But  with 
Spenser  the  case  is  different.  It  is  not  easy  to  imagine 
Spenser  vocal  or  active  at  all,  except  as  an  Elizabethan. 
All  the  tendencies,  literary,  social  and  political,  of  his 
1  Robertson,  Evolution  of  States,  p.  127, 
236 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

age  and  country  are  not  merely  reflected  in  him,  but 
he  actually  seems  as  much  wielded  by  them  as  they 
are  wielded  by  him.  Spenser,  from  this  point  of  view, 
must  be  regarded,  rather  than  Shakespeare,  as  the 
typical  and  characteristic  genius  of  the  Elizabethan 
Age.  Shakespeare  seems  only  accidentally  an  Eliza- 
bethan ;  but  the  Elizabethan  Age  is  of  the  very  essence 
of  Spenser's  artistic  productiveness. 

If  this  be  so,  we  shall  expect  to  find  defined  with 
perfect  clearness  in  his  creations  all  those  tendencies 
which  we  have  seen  operating  upon  the  national  atmo- 
sphere into  which  he  was  born.  And  we  shall  also 
see  that,  notwithstanding  the  clearness  of  the  separate 
elements,  he  has  learned  the  art  of  commingling  them 
into  the  unity  of  a  finished  and  unique  production. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  deny  the  spell  which  was  exer- 
cised upon  Spenser.  The  student  of  Homer  and  Virgil 
is  constantly  coming  across  passages  which  copy,  even 
translate,  well-known  lines  from  the  two  great  Classical 
epic  poets.  Apart  from  direct  imitations  and  trans- 
lations, every  Classical  scholar  will  feel,  as  in  the  parallel 
case  of  Tennyson,  that  a  goodly  portion  of  the  pleasure 
of  reading  the  poet  consists  in  the  innumerable  examples 
of  subtle  allusiveness  to  the  poetical  writings  of  the 
Classical  authors.  An  atmosphere  is  suggested  which 
cannot  be  described;  the  poet  does  not  describe  it; 
but  the  Classical  scholar  knows  it  is  an  atmosphere 
which  belongs  to  Greek  skies  or  Sicilian  landscapes. 
Even  his  grammatical  constructions  are  often  imitations 
of  Greek  and  Latin  constructions  :  he  wrote  excellent 
Latin  verse  himself :  and  it  is  only  by  a  sort  of  divine 
accident  that  we  escaped  having  the  Faerie  Queene  in 
English  hexameters,  a  contingency  which  we  can  only 
shudder  at  when  we  recall  such  English  hexameters  as — 

"  Hedgerows  hott  doo  resound  with  grasshops  mournfully  squeaking."  l 

But  if  Spenser  repudiated  a  Classical  verse  form 
for  his  great  poem,  he  was  under  the  spell  of  Classical 
models  in  other  spheres  of  influence.  Already  while 

1  The  Later  Renaissance,  by  David  Hannay  (Wm.  Blackwood  & 
Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1898),  p.  187. 

237 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

at  Cambridge  he  was  remarkable  for  his  study  of  Greek 
philosophy.  That  he  was  steeped  in  Platonism  is 
evidenced  by  innumerable  passages  of  philosophic  ideal- 
ism in  the  Faerie  Queene,  as  well  as  by  his  Four  Hymns 
on  Love  and  Beauty,  especially  the  two  dedicated  to 
"  Heavenly  Love,"  and  "  Heavenly  Beauty,"  which  are 
inspired  equally  by  Platonism  and  Christianity.1 

To  Aristotle  his  indebtedness  is  as  significant,  if  not 
so  subtle  and  all -pervasive  of  the  substance  of  his  work. 
His  object  in  writing  the  Faerie  Queene  is  expressed  very 
clearly  in  the  letter  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  which  appears 
at  the  end  of  the  first  edition  of  the  first  three  books, 
published  in  the  year  1590.2    The  wonderful  texture 
of  imaginative  beauty  which  he  hopes  to  weave;    the 
romantic  wealth  of  adventure  which  he  hopes  to  enjoy; 
the  marvel  and  the  mystery  of  the  fancied  worlds  he 
hopes  to  visit  in  his  song — it  almost  appears  from  the 
Raleigh  letter  as  if  he  regards  all  these  merely  as  so 
much    setting   for    the    Pagan    virtues    described    and, 
illustrated  in  that  famous  moral  work,  The  Ethics  of 
Aristotle.     Pagan  virtues  taking  the  shape  of  heroes 
of  chivalry;    the  twelve  virtues  of  Aristotle  masquer- 
ading as  twelve   knights   of  the  Arthurian  tradition : 
could  anything  be  more  significant  of  the  formation 
of  literary  tendencies   by  the   commingling   of  atmo- 
spheres ?     The  result  is  something  quite  new  and  dis- 
tinctive.    It  is   neither   Classical   nor   Romantic;   but 
Spenserian    and    English.     In    adorning    these    Pagan 
qualities   with   Christian   and   chivalric   accoutrements 
he  is  inspired  by  all  the  Romance  of  England  and  Italy ; 
taking  all  that  either  Malory  can  give  him  at  home, 
or  Ariosto  and  Tasso  abroad.     From  the  two  latter, 
his  favourite   Italian  poets,   style  is   copied,   passages 
are  translated,  characters  borrowed.   Besides,  the  volup- 
tuousness   with   which   Spenser   describes   the    beauty 
of  external  objects,  the  charms  of  physical  things ;  the 
dreaming,  Lotus-eating  sweetness  of  his  versification; 
the   seductions   which   the   poet  lends   to  -wickedness, 

1  The  Poetical  Works  of  Edmund  Spenser,  by  the  Rev.  George 
Gilfillan  and  Charles  Cowden  Clarke,  Library  Edition  in  five  volumes 
(Edinburgh  :  James  Nichol,  1862),  Vol.  V.  pp.  283-324. 

8  The  Raleigh  letter  is  given  in  Vol.  I.  of  the  Gilfillan  and  Cowdeu 
Clarke  edition,  next  before  the  Faerie  Queene. 

238 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

almost  tempting  the  chaste  to  be  naughty  through 
sheer  love  of  the  graces  of  its  description- — all  this 
shows  in  the  most  dominating  manner  the  influence  of 
that  love  of  beauty  which  is  the  characteristic  note  of 
the  pure  Italian  Renascence,  and  which  is  not  less 
conspicuous  in  Spenser  than  it  is  in  Ariosto  himself. 

The  Romantic  strain  in  Spenser,  therefore,  is  origin 
ally  drawn  from  the  old  familiar  British  sources  known 
to  Malory  from  the  Norman  renderings,  but  amplified  and 
enriched,  invigorated  and  sweetened,  by  the  delightful 
creations  of  the  Italian  poets  of  Romance  and  Fantasy. 

But  even  than  all  this  there  is  something  more  in 
Spenser.  The  first  hero  of  the  Faerie  Queene  is  the  Red 
Cross  Knight,  the  representative  of  Christian  Holiness, 
the  untiring  participator  in  that  pursuit  of  Goodness 
which  was  especially  re-inspired  by  the  Reformation 
in  its  revolt  against  the  excessive  devotion  to  Beauty 
and  Pleasure  characterizing  the  Renascence  in  Italy. 

And  in  Spenser  both  these  influences  are  harmoniously 
combined.  He  expresses  the  keen  sense  of  honour  of 
the  knights  of  Chivalry;  the  intellectual  dignity  of 
the  highest  Classical  philosophers;  the  exquisite  enjoy- 
ment of  natural  beauty  born  of,  or  inspired,  by,  the 
Renascence.  But  he  is  more  than  these.  In  him, 
that  something  in  the  English  character  which  responds 
readily  to  virtuous  appeals  was  attracted  to  the  severer 
forms  of  morality  which  were  associated  with  the 
Calvinists  who  found  their  inspiration  in  Geneva.  In 
religion,  Spenser  was  a  Calvinistic  Protestant,  that  is,  a 
Puritan,  and  he  had  that  deep  sense  of  religion  which 
characterized  the  Puritans.  Physical  beauty  has  been 
described  by  no  poet  with  more  exquisite  sense  of 
enjoyment  than  by  him;  moral  beauty,  goodness,  has 
no  more  eloquent  or  convinced  worshipper  than  he  is. 
As  M.  Taine  remarks  :  "  We  here  touch  the  sublime 
sharp  summit  where  the  worid  of  mind  and  the  world 
of  sense  unite ;  where  man,  gathering  with  both  hands 
the  loveliest  flowers  of  either,  feels  himself  at  the  same 
time  a  pagan  and  a  Christian."  l  Spenser  thus  hands 
down  to  posterity  the  love  of  goodness  embellished  and 
inspired  by  the  love  of  beauty.  He  moves  about  in  a 
world  of  wonder,  magic  and  enchantment,  but  his  guide 
1  Taine,  English  Literature,  VoL  I.  p.  292. 
239 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

is  ever  the  spirit  of  Christian  goodness  in  its  severest 
and  chastest  shape.  He  draws  a  gallery  of  gallant 
knightly  portraits,  but  he  embellishes  them  with-  every 
virtue  inspired  by  Greek  Philosophy,  every  sort  of 
goodness  taught  by  the  Christian  Religion.  He  is 
open  and  receptive  to  all  the  influences  of  his  age, 
native  and  foreign,  and  his  chief  historical,  as  apart 
from  his  artistic,  value  is  that  he  exhibits  as  in  a  mirror 
the  character  of  the  England  of  his  days' — the  England 
out  of  which  was  to  spring,  in  due  season,  the  Puritan 
revival,  with  all  that  that  meant  in  political,  social  and 
literary  life;  the  Restoration  reaction,  with  its  lessons 
of  the  danger  of  abandonment  to  the  sole  pursuit  of 
pleasure;  and  finally,  the  literature  and  social  life  of 
our  own  time,  in  which  one  sees  clearly  that  the  ex- 
quisite Spenserian  love  of  beauty  is  as  living  as  ever, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  is  held  in  restraint  by  a  con- 
ception of  moral  beauty  which  is  not  greatly  different 
from  that  of  Spenser  himself. 

In  Spenser  we  have  thus  an  example  of  that  com- 
mingling of  atmospheres  which  has  been  the  constantly 
operating  cause  of  all  our  literary  progress.  Foreign 
traditions  are  received  into  our  own  national  environ- 
ment, which  is  strengthened  and  enriched  to  form  a  more 
invigorating  and  inspiring  atmosphere  for  the  generations 
who  occupy  the  succeeding  stages  of  our  national  history. 

And  so  the  process  continues  :  the  national  tradition 
is  perpetuated  because  each  generation  is  educated  in 
the  tradition  of  its  predecessor  or  predecessors;  it  is 
varied  because  each  generation,  besides  combining  in 
different  forms  the  legacy  of  its  ancestors,  admits  into 
its  atmosphere  influences  and  traditions  from  external 
sources.  But  the  more  it  changes,  the  more  it  remains 
the  same,  because  the  new  material  is  looked  at  with 
eyes  educated  by  the  old,  and  must,  therefore,  be  judged 
mainly  from  the  point  of  view  presented  by  the  old. 
But  there  is  a  continual  intermingling  of  intellectual, 
moral  and  social  traditions,  and  so  far  from  the  English- 
man being  limited  to  the  expression  of  certain  "  racial  " 
qualities,  he  shows  himself  increasingly  capable  of 
receiving,  nurturing  and  practising  qualities  supposed 
to  be  the  special  endowment  of  other  "  races." 

It  is  remarkable,  though  not  often  remarked,  what 

240 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

strange  foreign  ways  of  thought,  emotion  and  expression 
have  found  their  way  into  our  national  atmosphere,  to 
receive  a  permanent  welcome  and  to  form  part  of  the 
legacy  of  all  succeeding  generations.  English  authors 
never  learned  at  home  the  art  of  concealing  poverty 
of  thought  under  that  careful  balance  of  phrasing  which 
is  so  elaborate  as  to  deceive  even  the  wary  into  thinking 
that  all  this  trouble  cannot  have  been  taken  for  nothing. 
The  trick  of  treating  a  peppercorn  of  meaning  as  if  it 
were  a  message  for  the  salvation  of  humanity  was  never 
English  until  Lyly  learnt  it  from  the  Spaniard  Guevara. 
This  and  the  allied  Spanish  affectation  of  adorning 
trivial  ideas  with  fantastic  and  far-fetched  imagery — 
the  two  becoming  highly  developed  in  Spain  at  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  under  the  influence  of  Gongora, 
Ledesma  and  Quevedo,  and  in  Italy  under  that  of 
Marino — found  a  refuge  in  our  English  tradition,  from 
which  they  have  never  been  entirely  eradicated,  although 
they  have  never  been  so  marked  a  feature  of  our  literary 
life  as  in  the  early  seventeenth  century,  when  Donne, 
Crashaw,  Quarles,  Herbert,  Vaughan,  and  even  Herrick 
himself,  not  to  speak  of  Cowley,  were  apt  pupils  in  this 
style,  of  which  Milton  happily  only  gives  us  a  single 
example  in  his  lines  on  "  Hobson  the  Carrier." 

But  if  the  poison  of  this  "  metaphysical  "  tendency 
came  from  Spain,  Spain  also  supplied  the  antidote  in 
a  form  of  literary  composition  working  in  close  touch 
with  the  realism  of  the  lower  strata  of  society.  What 
the  English  tradition  owes  to  the  Picaresque  novel,  to 
the  Romance  of  Roguery,  is  not  in  doubt  and  needs  no 
emphasis.  It  has  given  us  Aphra  Behn,  De  Foe,  Field- 
ing, Smollett  and  all  the  realists  down  to  George  Moore 
and  Thomas  Hardy. 

From  Spain,  also,  commencing  with  Caxton's  impres- 
sion of  the  Dictes  and  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers  (much 
of  which  was  taken  from  a  book  which  had  recently 
been  translated  from  the  Spanish  by  Lord  Rivers), 
down  to  the  Golden  Book  of  Marcus  Aurelius  trans- 
lated by  Lord  Berners  in  1534  from  a  French  version 
of  the  Spanish  original  of  Guevara,  Bishop  of  Mon- 
donedo,  a  stream  of  influence  was  felt  which  was 
exhibited  on  the  literary  side  in  such  works  as  Bacon's 
Apophthegms,  Burleigh's  Maxims,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
u  241 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

Maxims  of  State,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham's  Legacy, 
all  of  them  more  or  less  valuable  compendiums 
of  those  sententious  observations  which  summarize  in 
terse  and  weighty  phrases  the  general  experience  of 
humanity  on  the  most  important  phases  of  life.  On 
the  side  of  practice,  that  gravity  in  face  of  the  serious 
issues  of  conduct  which  is  now  a  highly  developed 
trait  in  our  national  character  was  undoubtedly  stimu- 
lated and  formed  by  this  foreign  influence,  which  has 
become  strongly  entrenched  in  the  national  literary, 
social  and  political  tradition. 

To  multiply  further  examples  of  his  thesis  would 
be  as  easy  for  the  writer  as  tedious  to  the  reader,  who 
must  be  referred  to  the  previous  pages  as  illustrating 
and  establishing  the  view  that  literature  has  no  racial 
origin  and  no  racial  growth,  although  it  has  emphatic- 
ally a  national  origin  and  a  national  growth.  The 
position  would  only  be  corroborated  by  details  of  the 
development  of  our  literature  from  the  days  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  those  of  King  George.  It  is  manifest 
that  the  same  method  can  be  applied  and  that  similar 
results  will  be  established,  with  a  constant  growth 
of  national  integrity  in  literature  as  the  national 
tradition  in  its  native  and  nationalized  elements  makes 
a  wider  appeal  to  a  more  generally  and  more  highly 
educated  nation.  All  our  great  writers  have  either 
dealt  with  material  in  which  Englishmen  as  such  have 
felt  a  common  interest,  or  have  dealt  with  foreign 
material  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  it  a  common 
interest  to  Englishmen  as  such  by  harmonizing  it 
with  the  existing  English  tradition;  the  added  material 
being  thus  combined  with  the  original  material  to 
form  the  common  possession  of  Englishmen  of  the 
next  and  succeeding  generations.  It  is  the  old  story 
of  the  basis  of  nationality  being  fixed  in  the  growth 
of  an  organic  community  of  common  interest,  the 
common  interest  becoming  wider  as  the  nations  pour 
their  streams  of  influence  in  upon  our  native  ways. 

The  existing  English  tradition,  the  atmosphere  in 
which  they  are  educated  as  Englishmen- — this  conditions 
all  the  work  of  the  new  men;  and,  bold  and  original 
as  they  may  be,  they  perpetuate  and  pass  it  on  to  their 
successors,  with  whatever  additions  and  improvements 

242 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

they  are  capable  of.  But  some  elements  of  the  tradition 
are  continuous,  and  Shaw  himself  cannot  help  Shake- 
speareanizing ;  Mr.  Robertson  derives  from  Hume  and 
the  eighteenth -century  Rationalists;  and  Mr.  Zangwill 
from  Richardson  and  Smollett.  Just  as  organic  con- 
tinuity of  common  interest  is  the  basis  and  the  explana- 
tion of  nationality,  so  literature,  which  expresses  this 
continuity,  necessarily  becomes  national.  Chaucer, 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  Words- 
worth, Byron,  Shelley,  Tennyson,  Browning,  Watson, 
Kipling,  are  torchbearers  in  one  Lucretian  procession- — 
all  share  in  the  English  tradition* — all  are  national  poets ; 
they  are  ours  in  a  sense  in  which  Dante  and  Goethe 
and  Victor  Hugo  can  never  be. 

It  is  possible  that  we  too  readily  admit  the  claim 
made  by  German  critics  that  Shakespeare  is  theirs  even 
more  than  ours.  At  any  rate,  the  writer  cannot  repu- 
diate the  thrill  of  quiet  satisfaction  which  he  felt  at 
reading  the  way  in  which  the  great  German  writer, 
Grillparzer,  disposes  of  this  claim.  He  quotes  from 
Gervinus,  the  historian  of  German  poetry :  "  The 
English  have  left  it  to  the  Germans  to  do  full  justice 
to  Shakespeare."  Grillparzer's  comment  on  this  is 
merely  "  Good  God  !  " — and  it  quite  adequate.1  But 
even  if  the  claim  were  true  it  does  not  remove  Shake- 
speare from  his  place  in  the  English  national  tradition. 
Carlyle  probably  understood  Goethe  better  than  most 
Germans;  but  that  does  not  make  Goethe  an  English- 
man, and  Shakespeare  remains  English  in  spite  of 
German  admiration.  The  English  literary  tradition  is 
a  different  thing  from  the  German  literary  tradition; 
both  are  different  from  the  French,  the  Spanish,  or  the 
Italian;  and  the  writer  cannot  imagine — at  any  rate, 
he  cannot  find — a  truer  or  a  clearer  description  of  these 
separate  traditions  than  to  <!all  them  national.  Litera- 
ture is  the  artistic  expression  of  the  process  of  social 
growth  and  development  in  a  community  which  is 
broadly  interested  in  the  same  things.  It  is  not  only 
a  criticism  of  life,  as  Arnold  called  it;  it  is  also  life 
itself;  and  it  is  the  national  life,  therefore,  which 
naturally  expresses  itself  in  national  literature.  And 
national  literature  is  always  in  close  and  intimate 
1  Grillparzer,  Cotta  Edition,  Vol.  XVIH.  p.  24. 
243 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

touch  with  the  spirit  of  the  social  group,  embodying 
its  thoughts  and  appealing  to  its  sympathies.  Litera- 
ture, once  and  again,  is  the  reproduction  of  national 
life  in  artistic  form.  Take  Goethe,  Schiller,  Moliere, 
Voltaire,  Cervantes,  Dante;  put  them  into  more  idio- 
matic English  than  they  have  ever  yet  enjoyed;  and 
they  are  still  German,  French,  Italian,  Spanish;  they 
derive  from  certain  special  traditions  and  associations 
which  flourished  in  their  respective  countries,  traditions 
and  associations  which  could  not  have  existed  except 
in  communities  with  an  environment  specially  favour- 
able to  their  production.  Put  Carlyle  into  German—- 
that is,  those  parts  of  him  which  were  not  written  in 
German — and  he  is  still  English — or  Scotch. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  view  allows  both  for  that 
community  of  domestic  interest  which  is  called  nation- 
ality and  for  that  community  of  domestic  and  foreign 
interests  which  is  called  internationalism.  It  recognizes 
quite  clearly  that  there  are  certain  things  which  as 
Englishmen  we  are  compelled  to  take  an  interest  in; 
but  it  recognizes  with  equal  clearness  that  we  owe  a 
great  part  of  our  national  development  to  sympathetic 
contact  with  other  nations.  The  history  of  English 
literature  is  continuously  the  history  of  its  expansion 
and  enrichment  by  foreign  influences,  both  social  and 
literary.  To  quote  A.  W.  Schlegel :  "  Poetry  as  the 
fervent  expression  of  our  whole  being  must  assume  new 
and  peculiar  forms  in  different  ages,"  1  and  with  us  the 
assumption  of  new  forms  has  been  largely  conditioned 
by  external  forces.  As  it  would  be  impossible  to  ex- 
clude Dante  and  Petrarch  from  a  history  of  Mediaeval 
English  literature ;  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  exclude 
Virgil  and  Horace  from  a  history  of  Puritan  and  Georgian 
literature;  so  it  would  be  impossible  to  exclude  Ibsen, 
Zola  and  Maeterlinck  from  a  history  of  present  English 
literature.  From  that  point  of  view  literature,  while 
it  cannot  help  being  national  as  expressing  community 
of  feeling  and  interest  in  the  national  group,  equally 
cannot  help  exhibiting  a  sympathetic  receptivity  towards 
the  external  stimuli  that  beat  upon  it. 

1  A  Course  of  Lectures  on  Dramatic  Art  and  Literature,  by  Augustus 
William  Schlegel,  translated  by  John  Black  (London :  Baldwin, 
Cradoek  &  Joy,  1815).  See  VoL  I.  p.  49. 

244 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

But  the  nations  are  not  united  yet;  the  sphere  of 
their  separate  interests  is  broader  than  the  sphere  of 
their  common  interests.  The  principle  of  nationality 
dominates  the  sentiment  of  international  sympathy. 
Since  the  failure  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  found  a 
universal  City  of  God  on  political  lines  the  development 
of  Europe  has  been  on  a  national  basis,  even  more  so 
after  the  French  Revolution  with  its  ideal  of  cosmopolitan 
brotherhood  than  before.  If  we  are  to  rob  that  principle 
of  some  of  its  powers  for  mischief,  and  to  emphasize 
its  influence  for  good,  the  line  of  progress  would  appear 
to  be,  not  in  the  cultivation  of  a  vague  humanitarian 
sentiment,  but  in  accepting  our  own  Matthew  Arnold's 
practical  invitation  to  "  regard  Europe  as  being,  for 
intellectual  and  spiritual  purposes,  one  great  confedera- 
tion, bound  to  a  joint  action  and  working  to  a  common 
result." 1  A  "  confederation,"  he  says,  and  he  who 
always  chose  his  words  for  their  precision  and  lucidity 
meant  by  a  confederation  a  group  of  separate  nation- 
alities each  obeying  its  own  laws,  each  working  out  its 
own  salvation  in  the  sphere  of  its  separate  communal 
interests,  but  each  stretching  out  for  knowledge  and 
sympathy  to  its  fellows  in  the  final  hope,  not  of  annihi- 
lating nationality,  but  of  using  all  its  tremendous  powers 
for  the  enhancement  of  the  common  international  good. 
This  line  of  progress  would  be  directed  by  a  recognition 
of  the  facts  of  history,  which  show  how  different  com- 
munities have  been  united  into  one  homogeneous  whole 
by  the  operation  of  influences  which  have  limited  the 
spheres  of  their  hostile  interests  and  extended  the  spheres 
of  their  common  interests.  Tlje  application  of  this 
principle  of  history  to  some  practical  problems  of  our 
present  national  and  international  life  is  a  task  the 
writer  reserves  for  the  two  following  chapters. 

1  Essay  on  "  The  Function  of  Criticism  at  the  Present  Time,"  in 
Essays  on  Criticism.  (The  New  Universal  Library  :  George  Routledge 
&  Sons),  p.  34. 


245 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Nationality  and  the  War — Patriotism  as  Emotion  and  Intelligence; 
as  Passion  and  as  Thought — Its  intellectual  Aspect  more  pro- 
nounced with  the  Spread  of  Education,  and  with  the  Progress 
of  the  War — Nationality  after  the  War — "  Remaking  the  Map  of 
Europe  "  from  the  Point  of  View  of  Nationality — Organic  Con- 
tinuity of  common  Interest  the  necessary  Test  of  Nationality  in 
post-war  Readjustments — The  Principle  of  Nationality  more  vital 
after  the  War  than  before  it — Nationality  as  the  Cause  of  War — 
The  Views  of  the  Anti-National  Pacifists :  (1)  That  Nationality  is 
the  Cause  of  War,  (2)  That  Peace  can  be  secured  only  by  the 
Elimination  of  Nationality,  either  (a)  through  the  Rise  of  a  World- 
Power,  or  (b)  by  the  Spread  of  Cosmopolitanism — These  Views 
examined  and  refuted. 

"  THUS  from  the  bosom  of  variety,  enmity  and  war, 
has  arisen  in  modern  Europe  that  national  unity  which 
is  so  striking  in  the  present  day,  and  which  tends  to 
develop  and  refine  itself  from  day  to  day  with  still 
greater  brilliance."  l  These  words  of  Guizot,  spoken 
nearly  a  century  ago,  were  profound  and  true  equally 
as  a  record  and  a  prediction.  The  prediction,  indeed, 
which  is  that  of  a  detached  philosopher  coldly  reasoning 
from  historical  premises,  has  acquired  a  truth  that  is 
almost  terrible  to  us  who  have  but  recently  witnessed 
the  utter  destruction  of  so  many  individual  hopes,  the 
annihilation  of  so  many  plans  of  social  and  political 
amelioration,  willingly  offered  up  to  that  sacred  cause 
of  nationality  whose  call  is  more  appealing,  whose 
charm  is  more  alluring,  whose  blessings  are  more  highly 
appreciated,  than  at  any  previous  period  of  European 
history.  Particularist  tendencies  at  home  are  suspended 
or  harmonized;  organizations  which  have  played  with 
the  notion  that  Religion  or  Industry,  or  participation 
in  the  common  work  of  civilization,  could  be  utilized 
to  inspire  a  non-national,  or  an  anti-national  propa- 

)•  Guizot,  History  of  European  Civilization,  translated  by  W.  Hazlitt, 
Vol.  I.  p.  138  (D.  Bogue,  1846,  The  "  Bohn  "  Series). 

246 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 
i 

ganda,  find  that  their  efforts  have  been  directed  by 
national  ideals,  as  they  owe  their  existence  to  national 
traditions.  Finance  discovers  that  it  is  no  longer 
international.  Socialism  prefers  to  fight  out  its  battle 
with  Capitalism  without  foreign  hindrance  or  aid; 
Religion  and  Freethought  alike  recognize  that  they 
are  National  Religion  and  National  Freethought. 

It  was  one  of  Mr.  Norman  Angell's  Pacifist  arguments 
in  the  days  before  the  war  that  "  the  nation  which 
should  use  its  military  power  to  destroy  the  religious, 
political  or  social  belief  of  some  other  nation  would 
certainly  be  entering  into  a  war  against  an  identical 
belief  held  by  groups  within  its  own  community."  1 
The  word  "  identical  "  here  begs  the  whole  question  at 
issue.  The  beliefs  cannot  be  identical  in  any  real 
sense;  they  are  shaped  and  coloured  and  developed 
and  directed  by  the  national  culture  in  which  they 
individually  flourish.  Christianity  in  England  is  English 
Christianity,  with  a  national  history  behind  it  and  a 
national  ideal  in  front  of  it.  Socialism  in  England  is 
English  Socialism,  coloured  by  English  culture  and 
aiming  at  the  solution  of  English  problems  by  English 
methods.  These  so-called  "  identical "  religious  and 
social  beliefs  prove,  on  examination,  to  be  fundamentally 
different  expressions  of  national  idealism.  It  is  clear  to 
the  Christian  and  the  Socialist  of  England  that  our 
national  ideals  must  be  preserved  even  if  German 
Christianity  and  International  Socialism  perish  for  ever. 
When  the  continuity  of  the  national  tradition  is  threat- 
ened, Dr.  Clifford  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Mr.  Robert  Blatchford  and  Lord  Salisbury,  unite  with 
equal  passion  in  its  defence;  whilst  abroad  the  Jesuits 
of  Munich  fulminate  against  the  Jesuits  of  Brussels  and 
Cardinal  Mercier  is  as  patriotic  as  M.  Max. 

Like  "all  the  great  principles  which  have  dominated 
in  the  development  of  human  institutions  and  habits, 
patriotism  has  its  sources  both  in  passion  and  in  reason ; 
it  shares  alike  in  enthusiasm  and  intelligence.  In  other 
manifestations  of  the  devotion  aroused  by  an  inspiring 
cause,  we  commonly  find  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the 

1  The  Foundations  of  International  Polity,  by  Norman  Angell  (Wm. 
Heinemann,  1914).  "  Introductory  Summary,"  pp.  26-7. 

247 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

many  has  been  guided  by  the  intelligence  of  the  few ; 
the  passion  of  the  crowd  directed,  if  not  evoked,  by  the 
judgment  of  their  leaders.  In  the  mob  passion  has 
been  the  motive  power,  and  only  in  the  rarest  cases 
have  even  the  leaders  felt  in  themselves  the  emotions 
which  they  directed  in  others.  Frequently,  too,  the 
general  fervour  originally  actuating  the  crusade  has 
been  dissipated  in  a  coldly  rational  formalism  which 
has  turned  the  old  battle-cries  into  dry  codes  of  law 
or  theology ;  the  passion  which  dominates  in  one  period 
is  displaced  by  a  too-sickly  thoughtfulness  in  another. 
But  in  the  case  of  patriotism,  the  more  general  pre- 
valence of  even  a  narrow  and  halting  education  among 
the  popular  masses  of  the  civilized  communities  is  gradu- 
ally producing  a  conception  of  nationality  in  which 
passion  and  intelligence,  emotion  and  culture,  are  not 
separated  from  each  other,  either  as  belonging  to 
different  periods  in  the  development  of  the  conception, 
or  by  differences  of  individual  character  in  those  who 
maintain  it :  the  elements  of  reason  and  sentiment  are 
in  process  of  being  harmoniously  co-ordinated  in  the 
mind  and  heart  of  every  true  patriot. 

We  have  already  sufficiently  emphasized  the  view 
that  the  growth  of  nationality  is  due  to  the  mutual 
action  and  interaction  of  the  communal  environment 
and  the  minds  of  the  individual  persons  who  are  within 
the  sphere  of  its  influence.  We  have  seen  how  great 
and  representative  personalities  have  guided  the  events 
and  circumstances  of  their  environment  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  national  ends ;  how  they  have  contributed 
by  conscious  and  deliberate  action  to  the  creation  of 
that  national  tradition  in  whose  establishment  the 
majority  of  the  people  have,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
participated.  But  with  the  spread  of  education  and 
the  consequent  wider  knowledge  of  national  history 
the  number  of  those  who  have  consciously  and  intelli- 
gently studied  the  evolution  of  the  national  ideal 
constantly  increases,  and  the  number  of  those  in  whom 
patriotism  is  a  mere  matter  of  unconscious  sympathy 
with  their  social  and  physical  surroundings  constantly 
decreases.  This  is  a  fact  which  is  pregnant  with  great 
national  possibilities  for  the  future,  as  it  multiplies  the 

248 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

minds  that  can  consciously  co-operate  in  the  shaping 
of  national  ideals.  But  perhaps  its  main,  importance 
to  us  at  present  is  that  it  strengthens  the  intellectual 
element  in  the  nationalistic  conception  and  enables 
the  ardent  patriot  to  give  historical  reasons  for  the 
faith  that  is  in  him.  He  sees  clearly  and  consciously 
that,  as  a  pure  matter  of  historical  fact,  he  owes  all 
that  he  is  and  has,  not  to  his  racial  descent,  but  to  his 
inheritance  of  a  national  culture  and  tradition.  His 
knowledge,  his  emotion  and  his  action  are  perceived  to 
have  no  meaning,  hardly  an  existence,  except  as  related 
to  the  tradition  which  has  produced  and  nourished  him. 
If  he  could  conceive  of  himself  apart  from  his  nationality 
it  would  only  be  as  an  aimless  object,  moving  about 
in  worlds  not  realized.  He  is  at  once  the  creature  and 
the  creator  of  a  tradition.  Even  the  spiritual  approaches 
he  makes  to  foreign  nations  are  conditioned  by  the 
national  tradition  of  which  he  forms  a  part.  One 
cannot,  for  example,  read  a  word  of  Lord  Haldane's 
without  perceiving  that  his  statement  that  Germany 
was  his  spiritual  home,  if  ever  he  made  the  statement, 
could  never  have  been  true  in  any  substantial  sense; 
that  it  must  have  been  a  mere  piece  of  exaggerated 
international  politeness;  that  he  has  read  Kant  and 
Schopenhauer  as  an  Englishman  and  not  as  a  German. 
We  Englishmen  must  always  understand  Goethe  or 
Schiller  as  Englishmen,  just  as  the  Germans  make  of 
Shakespeare  what,  as  Germans,  they  can.  They  cannot 
see  Shakespeare  as  Englishmen  can  see  him;  they  see 
him  through  the  atmosphere  of  their  own  literary 
tradition  and  social  culture.  It  is  not  "  our  Shake- 
speare "  they  know,  it  is  "  unser  Shakespeare " — a 
Shakespeare  remade  in  Germany  out  of  English  material. 
Little  as  one  may  be  inclined  to  use  the  Great  War 
to  point  the  moral  of  a  student's  essay,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  we  should  conclude  from  some  indisput- 
able aspects  of  the  conflict  that  the  tendency  to  suffuse 
patriotism  with  intelligence  has  recently  received  a 
strong  impulse.  It  becomes  increasingly  manifest  that 
the  struggle  has  been  a  combat  between  different 
national  traditions  whose  comparative  value  to  humanity 
can  be  investigated  and  discussed  from  the  standpoint 

249 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

of  reason.  It  may  be  admitted  that  upon  the  out- 
break of  the  war  British  patriotism,  as  was,  perhaps, 
natural  considering  the  sudden  nature  of  the  shock, 
appeared  to  be  dominated  by  emotional  rather  than 
by  purely  rational  considerations,  so  far  as  concerned 
the  great  mass  of  the  community,  and  to  exhibit  most 
conspicuously  "  that  intuitive  instinctive  quality " 
which  Mr.  Norman  Angell  seems  to  regard  as  the  only 
characteristic  of  patriotism.1  From  that  thrilling  moment 
when  we  became  conscious  that  the  national  ideals  of 
the  European  States,  so  far  from  co-operating  towards 
the  peaceful  permeation  of  the  world  with  what  was 
best  in  each  of  them,  were  to  fight  out  their  conflicting 
claims  in  the  old  crude  way  of  war — from  that  moment 
the  whole  community  was  seized  with  a  passionate 
fervour  of  devotion  which  can  only  be  compared,  for 
the  intensity  of  its  ardour,  with  a  religious  revival. 
And  this  was  the  case,  not  only  with  those  who  had 
almost  glaring  cause  to  be  grateful  to  the  national 
tradition,  but  it  was  conspicuously  so  with  many  people 
who  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  as  critics 
and  opponents  of  social  and  economic  conditions  in  this 
country.  But  when  the  war  came,  these  people — some 
of  them  having  reached  the  stage  of  doubting  the  value 
of  British  nationality,  others,  while  not  denying  its 
value,  speaking  chiefly  of  its  imperfections  and  failures 
— found  all  at  once  that  nationality  was  an  inspired 
and  inspiring  gospel  which,  almost  blinding  them  with 
its  transfiguring  light,  turned  doubt  to  devotion  and 
criticism  to  passionate  self-surrender. 

To  those,  however,  who  looked  beneath  the  surface 
of  this  current  of  patriotic  emotion,  or  who  watched 
its  progress  after  a  short  interval  of  time,  it  seemed 
equally  clear  that  sentiment  and  enthusiasm  did  not 
exhaust  the  whole  of  its  meaning  and  contents;  that 
a  reasoned  recognition  of  the  surpassing  worth  of  the 
British  tradition  had  an  equal  share  in  creating  it  and 
directing  it,  giving  it  that  constant  and  sustaining  force 
which  mere  emotion  never  inspires.  The  national 
education,  imperfect  and  foolish  in  many  respects,  had 

1  War  and  the  Essential  Realities,  by  Norman  Angell  (Conway 
Memorial  Lecture,  1913.  Watts  &  Co.)>  passim. 

250 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

not  been  without  influence  in  showing  the  community, 
even  those  members  of  it  who  were  least  satisfied  with 
its  social  and  economic  structure,  that  everything  they 
possessed  in  life  was  the  gift  of  their  nationality  ;•  that 
even  criticism  and  opposition  were  national  rights, 
conditioned  by  national  circumstances,  directed  by 
national  motives,  and  aiming  at  the  realization  of  national 
ideals.  Reason,  recognizing  the  value  of  the  national 
tradition,  and  emotion,  flushing  with  a  sudden  gratitude 
for  what  the  national  tradition  had  already  accom- 
plished, were  fused  into  an  ardent  determination  to  use 
the  international  crisis  for  the  purpose  of  directing  our 
national  ideals  towards  greater  aims  and  nobler  destinies 
than  ever. 

And  as  the  war  progressed  it  became  indubitably 
clear  that  a  reasoned  conception  of  the  value  of  our 
national  culture  lay  at  the  basis  of  our  action  in  the 
crisis.  It  is  beginning  to  be  definitely  understood  that 
nationality  always  represents  a  specific  form  of  culture 
and  character,  easily  recognizable  as  distinct  from  the 
culture  and  character  of  other  nationalities.  The  growth 
of  nationality  can  be  studied  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  historical  research;  the  differences  of  culture  and 
tradition  represented  by  different  nationalities  are  seen 
to  have  their  origins  and  causes  in  the  facts  of  their 
separate  national  histories;  the  culture  and  character 
of  a  people  are  found  to  be  the  result  of  the  experiences 
through  which  it  has  passed ;  and,  as  no  two  nationalities 
have  passed  through  anything  like  the  same  experi- 
ences, it  follows  that  no  two  nationalities  exhibit  the 
same  character  or  represent  the  same  culture.  No  one 
could  contend  that  British  and  German  ideals  of  char- 
acter and  culture  are  identical,  related  as  the  two 
peoples  are  to  each  other  in  religion  and  language  and 
in  the  common  possession  of  the  Grseco -Roman  civiliza- 
tion. There  never  was  a  moment  when  the  ideals  and 
traditions  of  the  German  peoples  were  identical  with 
ours,  since  the  moment  when  German  tribes  came  over 
the  North  Sea  and  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  our 
English  culture  and  character  1500fyearsjago.  There 
have,  however,!  been  moments  when  the  two  nations 
could  co-operate][sympathetically  in  the  common  work 

251 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

of    civilization;     in    common    scientific,    artistic    and 
literary  occupations  and  projects.     But  during  the  last 
century,  especially  the  latter  half  of  it,  Germany  has 
passed  -through  experiences,  springing  from  her  social 
and  political  environment  and  from  the  action  of  the 
personalities   who   have   consciously   or   unconsciously 
directed  the  facts  of  that  environment,  which  have  made 
her  cultural  ideals  totally  incompatible  with  those  that 
prevail   on   this   side   of   the   North   Sea.     Bismarck's 
uncompromising  application  of  the  policy  of  Machiavelli 
and  that  old  German  hero  Reineke  Fuchs  to  the  sphere 
of  international  politics;    his  insistence  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-interest  as  the  only  guide  of  State  policy; 
the  success  of  his  policy  in  the  cases  of  Denmark,  Austria 
and   France;    the   unparalleled   extension   of   German 
industrialism  as  a  factor  in  her  domestic  evolution  and 
in  her  political  relations  with  other  industrial  States; 
the  fantastic  racial  theories  of  Chamberlain  which  claim 
universal   supremacy  for  the   German   people  on   the 
ground  of  some  entirely  illusory  quality  in  their  blood, 
and  which  have  been  systematically  instilled  into  the 
minds  of  all  the  younger  generation  of  Germans — these 
special  experiences  have  caused  the  German  tradition 
and  culture  to  become,  not  hostile  only  to  those  of 
Great  Britain  but  to  those  of  civilized  nations  in  general. 
But  emphasized  as  the  differences  have  recently  become, 
it  will  not  be  imagined  that  they  are  purely  the  out- 
come  of   yesterday's    events.     It   is   true   that    every 
generation  of  a  nation's  history  brings  with  it  newer 
experiences,  a  more  complicated  and  elaborate  environ- 
ment,   more,    and    different*    individual   minds    to1   be 
affected  by  the  environment  and  to  affect  it  in  turn ; 
but  the  character  and  culture  of  a  nation  at  any  moment 
are  the  result  of  all  the  experiences  through  which  it 
has  passed,  since  the  beginnings  of  its  history.     It  is 
impossible    to    separate    generation    from    generation. 
Every  generation  inherits  the  tradition  and  culture  of 
its  predecessors ;  we  are  all  educated  in  the  atmosphere 
of  our  childhood ;  we  learn  what  our  fathers  have  taught 
us ;  we  take  up  the  national  tradition  of  accomplishment 
and  hope  where  they  left  it ;   we  mould  it  to  the  extent 
of  our  individual  capacities  and  social  opportunities; 

252 


&ACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

we  alter  it,  enrich  it,  strengthen  it;  but  we  never 
annihilate  it:  we  hand  it  down  to  our  children,  our 
successors,  to  deal  with  it  and  be  dealt  with  by  it  in 
their  turn.  But  there  is  a  strain  of  continuity  running 
through  all  the  changes;  and  we  later  Englishmen  are 
justified  in  recognizing  a  kinship  with  Alfred  the  Great 
and  Jack  Cade  and  Chaucer  the  Poet  that  we  do  not 
recognize  with  Haeckel  and  Eucken,  although  the  latter 
belong  to  our  own  generation,  have  endowed  us  with 
many  spiritual  gifts  and  graces,  and  are  probably  in 
blood  as  near  akin  to  us  as  our  own  "  ancestors." 

The  conscious  and  intelligent  recognition  that  nation- 
ality is  not  an  hallucination ;  that  it  has  no  objective 
basis  in  differences  of  race ;  that  it  is  in  every  case  the 
expression  of  a  distinct  culture,  a  separate  historical 
tradition :  these  points  emerge  with  something  of  a 
terrible  lucidity  from  recent  European  history.  But 
particularly  the  last  point.  It  is  strikingly  manifest 
that  the  various  nationalities  of  Europe  are  intellectually 
and  morally  conscious  that,  in  spite  of  complicated 
relationships  with  each  other,  relationships  of  Trade, 
Finance,  Religion,  Art,  Science  and  the  rest,  they  are 
endowed  by  the  forces  of  their  past  histories  with 
definite  and  characteristic  desires  and  necessities ;  that 
they  have  separate  missions  to  accomplish,  not  only 
for  themselves  but  for  the  world  at  large.  And  this 
fact  is  most  tragically  conspicuous  in  the  case  of  Ger- 
many, for  whom  the  claim  has  been  made,  by  the 
most  representative  exponents  of  her  national  views, 
that  her  culture,  her  tradition,  her  character,  her 
mission,  are  so  super-excellent  that  they  must,  for  the 
world's  good,  be  forced  upon  the  world  at  the  point  of 
the  sword.  Mr.  Norman  Angell  said  a  few  years  ago : 
"  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  has  yet  argued  that 
foreign  nations  are  going  to .  attack  us  from  altruistic 
motives — for  our  own  good."  l  And,  indeed,  it  seemed 
an  excellent  jest  at  the  time;  but  the  jest  has  lost 
something  of  its  savour  now  that  we  have  seen  a  people 
so  enamoured  of  their  own  culture  as  to  be  convinced 
that  the  world's  salvation  depended  upon  it  being 
Germanized,  and  that  the  attainment  of  this  holy  end 
1  Foundations  of  International  Polity,  p.  10. 
253 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

would  justify  any  means  calculated  to  effect  it.     This, 
however,    is    the    very    anti-climax    of    nationality,    a 
crucial  example  of  the  principle  corruptio  optimi  pessima. 
But  this  exaggeration  of  the  national  principle  serves 
to   emphasize  its  reality.     The  German  aberration  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  people  of  that  country  have  so 
thoroughly  imbibed  the  foolish  teachings  of  Chamber- 
lain and  the  rest  as  to  their  racial  superiority,  with  its 
fantastic  corollary  of  universal  empire  as  their  inevit- 
able  racial   destiny.     To    assume   this   attitude   is   to 
eliminate  intelligent  choice  from  human  affairs  and  to 
hand  them  over  again  to  the  Norns  and  the  Wyrds. 
It  would  give  the  great  and  desired  reward  of   world- 
power  to   the   Germans,   not    because  their  historical 
development  has  made  them  worthy  of  it,  but  .because 
they  are  fated  to  it.     Had  they  not  deliberately  shut 
their  eyes  to  the  results  of  their  studies  in  the  history 
of  their  own  country,  they  would  have  admitted  that 
the  development  of  their  Imperial  Nationality  has  been 
favoured  or  retarded,  not  by  the  blind  impulsion  of  a 
racial  fate,  not  by  the  "  purity "  or  "  impurity "  of 
their  blood,  but  by  the  action  of  personalities  whose 
appearance  was  very  much  a  matter  of  accident,  and 
whose  policies  were  inspired  and  guided  by  their  social 
environment.     Substantially  the  racial  composition  of 
the  German    people  is  what   it  was   when  the   states 
which  are  now  united  in  one  nationality  were  separated 
into  more  or  less  loosely  allied  Kingdoms  and  Duchies 
and  Palatinates   and   Free    Towns,   with   all   sorts   of 
particularist   and   disruptive   tendencies.     That   these 
discrepant  units  became  welded  into  one  harmonious 
scheme  was   due  to   causes   broadly  similar  to   those 
which  operated  in  the  production  of  British  nationality. 
German  nationality  is  due  to  the  pressure  of  circum- 
stances and  to  the  action  of  personalities  in  diminishing 
the   spheres   of  the  hostile  interests   of   the   different 
elements  and  in  increasing  and  at  last  identifying  the 
spheres  of  their  friendly  interests;    and  this,  in  their 
case  as  in  our  own,  notwithstanding  the  vast  differences 
of  racial  origin  represented  by  the  population. 

The  elimination  of  race  as  an  objective  factor  in 
national  development  and  the  recognition  that  nation- 

254 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

ality  is  due  to  the  natural  operation  of  circumstances 
and  the  use  made  of  them  by  the  human  intelligence 
at  once  removes  the  workings  of  the  national  spirit 
from  the  control  of  ineluctable  Fate,  and  places  it  still 
more  directly  than  before  under  the  control  of  the 
national  intelligence.  It  becomes  evident  that  nations, 
like  their  individual  citizens,  possess  the  power  of 
intelligent  choice,  a  consideration  which  immediately 
brings  national  policies  into  the  sphere  of  Moral  Law. 
Just  as  a  man  who  has  the  power  of  choice  acts  upon 
the  social  and,  therefore,  the  moral  principle  that  he  must 
not  exercise  that  power  to  the  detriment  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  ;  so  a  nation,  however  strong  and  superabundant 
her  consciousness  of  vitality,  must  not,  having  the  power 
of  choice,  use  her  power  to  the  detriment  of  other 
nationalities.  It  is  a  perception  of  this  fact,  forgotten 
by  Germany,  which  actuates  the  nations  who  arrayed 
themselves  against  her.  We  are,  no  doubt,  still  a  long 
way  from  the  general  introduction  into  the  international 
sphere  of  those  principles  which  guide  men  in  their 
relationships  with  each  other  in  the  same  social  group ; 
but  with  the  recognition  that  national  growth  depends 
not  only  upon  circumstances,  but  upon  the  use  the 
national  mind  makes  of  them — upon  the  way,  that  is, 
in  which  it  exercises  its  power  of  choice — we  can  discern 
the  faint  beginnings  of  the  operation,  in  international 
policy,  of  the  same  principle  which  has  established 
personal  morality  upon  its  present  secure  basis.  The 
German  exaggeration  of  the  nationalistic  principle  is 
almost  universally  stigmatized  as  "  immoral " ;  and 
being  immoral  it  is  unintelligent,  not  only  in  its  applica- 
tion but  in  its  origin.  The  patriotic  ideal  gradually 
emerging  from  the  chaos  of  the  war  is  one  which  places 
enthusiasm  under  the  guidance  of  reason,  and  bases  all 
estimates  of  the  value  of  the  national  culture,  and  all 
plans  for  its  future  development,  upon  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  it  has  already  been  able  to  accom- 
plish, not  only  for  itself  and  its  own  people,  but  also 
for  the  world  at  large,  as  compared  with  the  work  of 
other  nationalities. 

Nationality,  therefore,  as  tradition  and  culture,  not 
as  racial  endowment,  was  the  vital  principle  at  issue 

255 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

in  the  war.  This  is  equally  clear  whether  the  conflict 
is  regarded  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  causes  and 
origins,  or  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  settlement 
which  must  follow  now  that  victory  lies  with  the 
Powers  who  were  defending  the  principle  as  a  sane  and 
salutary  element  in  human  evolution  against  the  Powers, 
or  rather  the  Power,  who  fantastically  aimed  at  destroy- 
ing it  altogether.  "  Nationalism,"  says  Mr.  Arnold  J. 
Toynbee,  in  his  highly  interesting  book  on  Nationality 
and  the  War,  "  has  been  strong  enough  to  produce  war 
in  spite  of  us.  It  has  terribly  proved  itself  to  be  no 
outworn  creed,  but  a  vital  force  to  be  reckoned  with."- 
"  The  right  reading  of  Nationality  has  become  an  affair 
of  life  and  death."  *•  And  Mr.  Toynbee,  with  a  know- 
ledge of  European  politics,  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
smaller  nationalities,  which  is  almost  marvellous,  and  a 
courage  which  is  entirely  so,  proceeded  to  apply  the 
principle  of  nationality  to  a  reconstruction  of  the  map 
of  Europe  upon  the  hypothesis  that  the  Southern  and 
Western  Powers  would  finally  defeat  the  Central  Powers. 
To  one  at  least  of  its  readers  this  powerful  and  fascinat- 
ing book  is  chiefly  significant  because  it  entirely  dis- 
regards the  racial  factor  as  an  element  in  nationality. 
"  Like  all  great  forces  in  human  life,  it  is  nothing 
material  or  mechanical,  but  a  subjective  psychological 
feeling  in  living  people.  This  feeling  can  be  kindled 
by  the  pressure  of  one  or  several  of  a  series  of  factors — 
a  common  country,  especially  if  it  is  a  well-defined 
physical  region,  like  an  island,  a  river  basin,  or  a  moun- 
tain mass;  a  common  language,  especially  if  it  has 
given  birth  to  a  literature;  a  common  religion,  and 
that  much  more  impalpable  force,  a  common  tradition 
or-  sense  of  memories  shared  from  the  past."  2  How 
far  this  statement  agrees  with  the  position  assumed  in 
the  foregoing  pages,  the  reader  is  able  to  decide  for 
himself,  or  will  be  able  to  do  so  if  he  has  also  read 
the  pages  in  which  Mr.  Toynbee  applies  his  principle 
to  all  the  complex  and  difficult  problems  of  the  European 
situation.  There  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  definition 

1  Nationality  and  the  War,  by  Arnold  J.  Toynbee  (J.  M.  Dent  &  Sons, 
Ltd.,  1915),  p.  12. 
8  Ibid.,  p.  13. 

256 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

in  regard  to  which  the  writer  would  wish  to  suggest 
another  point  of  view  :  that  indicated  by  the  statement 
that  nationality  is  a  "  subjective  psychological  feeling 
in  living  people."  There  is,  of  course,  a  sense  in  which 
all  human  experiences,  even  those  arising  from  contact 
with  "  material  or  mechanical  "  forces,  are  "  subjective 
psychological  feelings  " ;  but  the  practical  experience 
of  sane  men  draws  a  distinction  between  the  subjective 
and  the  objective  which  does  not  entirely  correspond 
to  the  distinction  between  "  psychological  "  and  "  mate- 
rial "  as  Mr.  Toynbee  contrasts  these  epithets.  The 
effect  which  a  friend's  conversation  produces  upon  me 
is  subjective;  the  conversation  itself  is  objective — it 
has  a  practical  existence  external  to  myself.  The 
education  we  receive  in  our  early  youth;  the  social 
influences  that  surround  us;  the  political  events  and 
persons  we  meet  with;  in  a  word,  all  the  forces  and 
tendencies  of  the  national  tradition  we  are  born  into — 
all  these  are  as  truly  objective  as  the  material  and 
mechanical  forces  which  operate  on  us  from  the  out- 
side. The  forces,  therefore,  that  constitute  nationality 
are  not  subjective  in  the  sense  that  they  are  merely 
states  of  mind,  although  they  may  be  in  the  sense  that 
they  produce  states  of  mind,  which  is  exactly  the  case 
with  the  impact  of  material  and  mechanical  forces. 
The  national  tradition  in  which  we  live  and  move 
consists  no  less  of  psychological  forces  than  of  material 
and  mechanical  forces,  and  there  is  no  more  reason 
why  we  should  call  the  external  psychological  forces 
subjective  than  we  should  call  the  external  material 
and  mechanical  forces  subjective.  The  forces,  there- 
fore, which  make  nationality  are  actually  existing 
forces,  no  more  to  be  described  as  subjective  than  the 
sun  and  the  stars  and  the  furniture  in  our  houses. 

But  whether  subjective  or  objective  Mr.  Toynbee 
emphatically  recognizes  that  nationality  is  a  living 
force  in  the  sense  that  Guizot  recognized  it  as  a  living 
force  :  "  the  recognition  of  Nationality  is  the  necessary 
foundation  for  European  peace  " ;  x  and  in  his  analysis 
of  the  national  problems  involved  in  the  whole  sphere 
of  European  politics  from  Ireland  to  Poland,  from  Alsace 

1  Toynbee,  p.  40. 
s  257 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

to  Sehleswig-Holstein,  he  clearly  demonstrates  that  the 
sense  of  common  interest  must  be,  as  far  as  the  national 
safety  of  other  spheres  of  common  interest  will  allow, 
the  ruling  principle  in  separating  a  group  of  people 
from  one  nation  and  adding  it  to  another.  Race  is 
implicitly  excluded  all  the  way  through  as  a  determining 
factor,  as  a  crucial  example  will  show.  Mr.  Toynbee 
wishes  to  reconstitute  Polish  nationality  as  a  political 
entity;  but  while  he  would  include  in  the  new  State 
a  populous  part  of  Silesia,  "  the  extremely  important 
mining  district  of  the  Five  Towns,"  because  "  the  mass 
of  the  miners  and  workers  is  recruited  from  the  Polish 
countryside,  and  the  growth  of  the  Polish  majority  has 
already  made  itself  felt  in  politics,"  yet  he  recognizes 
that  the  "  Polish  wing  of  the  Slavonic  migration  from 
the  East,"  which  occupied  Silesia  about  A.D.  600,  has 
become  Germanized  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  the 
province  as  a  whole  of  purely  German  nationality.  In 
the  latter  case  there  is  no  organic  continuity  of  common 
Polish  interest ;  in  the  former  the  sense  of  common 
interest  has  survived  the  disruption  of  the  Polish  nation 
and  the  transportation  of  its  members  into  the  midst 
of  the  German  people,  and  inspires  the  action  of  the 
colony  as  an  organized  social  and  political  unit.1  In  the 
case  of  Poland,  as  in  the  majority  of  his  examples  of 
national  reconstruction,  Mr.  Toynbee  admits  the  common 
interest  as  being  clear  beyond  the  necessity  for  further 
investigation ;  but  in  the  critical  case  of  Alsace  he 
suggests  a  plebiscite  to  determine  what  the  nationality, 
or  rather  nationalities,  of  its  people  shall  be.2  A 
plebiscite  to  determine  nationality  !  Paradoxical  as  the 
notion  may  appear  at  the  first  glance,  it  is  really 
nothing  more  or  less  than  a  perfectly  logical  application 
of  the  principle  of  community  of  interest  as  the  basis 
of  national  life.  It  simply  means  that  every  Alsatian 
citizen  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  stating  whether  he 
conceives  his  interests,  in  the  broad  sense  we  have 
attached  to  that  term,  as  lying  in  the  sphere  of  German 
national  life  or  in  the  sphere  of  French  national  life. 
This  decision  would  be  an  expression  of  the  result  which 
his  social  and  political  environment  has  had  upon  him ; 

1  Toynbee,  pp.  67-70.  a  Ibid.,  pp.  41  sqq. 

258 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

« 

of  all  the  intellectual,  moral  and  material  circumstances 
which  have  given  his  personality  its  bent,  its  interests, 
its  sympathies,  its  hopes,  its  ideals.  It  is  probable  that 
no  single  motive  will  dominate  his  choice.  It  will 
spring  rather  from  that  intermingled  crowd  of  thoughts, 
sentiments,  emotions  and  passions  which  commonly 
inspire,  or  at  least  direct  and  colour,  the  simplest  actions 
of  men.  But  it  will  no  less  represent  the  result  of  the 
interaction  of  his  personality  and  its  environment;  it 
will  make  clearly  manifest  the  interests  which  dominate 
his  life  and  shape  his  character.  If  his  interests,  that 
is  to  say,  his  education  and  training,  his  conscious 
studies,  his  emotional  sympathies,  his  practical  pros- 
pects, have  moulded  his  ideals  to  identity  with  those 
of  Germany — and  he  knows,  being  an  Alsatian,  quite 
well  what  they  are — he  cannot  but  decide  to  be  included 
in  German  nationality.  The  question  for  him  is  purely 
one  of  deciding  where  his  interests  lie,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  40,000  inhabitants  of  Alsace  who  repudiated  German 
nationality  in  1872.  Whether,  while  still  remaining  in 
Alsace,  he  may  be  a  German  depends,  with  Mr.  Toynbee, 
upon  the  result  of  the  plebiscite,  or  upon  certain 
geographical  boundary  questions  affecting  the  national 
existence  of  France  and  Germany.  But  this  fact  does 
not  alter  the  nature  of  the  decision  as  an  expression  of 
community  of  interest  with  Germany;  it  only  means 
that  if  the'  plebiscite  goes  against  him,  he  will  have  to 
live  in  the  midst  of  a  community  whose  dominating 
national  interests  are,  for  the  moment,  not  identical 
with  his  own.  Whether  this  painful  situation  will 
endure  depends  upon  the  way  in  which  his  environ- 
ment is  deliberately  affected  by  the  policy  of  the 
French  Government  and  the  action  of  the  French  people. 
Proper  treatment,  the  conscious  efforts  of  statesmen  to 
induce  community  of  political  interest,  the  friendly 
action  of  his  French  neighbours  to  induce  community 
of  social  interest,  will  tend  to  assuage  the  differences 
of  national  sentiment,  and  will  end  by  making  his 
children,  if  not  himself,  as  French  as  the  majority  of 
the  population.  But,  in  any  event,  to  see  an  individual 
citizen  deliberately  deciding  whether  he  will  be  a  French- 
man or  a  German  is,  indeed,  to  give  the  lie  to  all  the 
fatalism  of  race,  and  to  exhibit  clearly  the  fact  that 

259 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

nationality  is  the  result  of  environmental  forces  acting 
upon  a  particular  human  personality  to  produce  a  sense 
of  community  of  interest  with  those  subjected  to  the 
same  environment. 

These  considerations  appear  to  suggest  that,  in  the 
future,  nationality,  while  never  losing  those  emotional 
characteristics  which  always  surround  and  idealize  the 
associations  of  childhood  and  early  youth,  will  tend  to 
assume  more  and  more  the  deliberate  ethical  action  of 
mature  and  experienced  wisdom.  When  "  the  map  of 
Europe  has  been  remade  "  it  is  certain  that  the  principle 
of  nationality,  after  a  vindication  at  once  So  practical 
and  so  dramatic,  will  possess  more  strength  and  vitality 
than  ever  before;  and  the  question  will  arise,  nay,  has 
already  arisen,  how  the  principle  can  be  directed  towards 
action  to  secure  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  world 
at  large.  The  writer  finds  himself  unable  to  avoid 
the  conclusion  springing  from  every  argument  in  the 
foregoing  pages  that  the  same  process  which  has  pro- 
duced nationality  will,  if  guided  by  the  conscious  and 
deliberate  moral  choice  of  the  people  of  the  nations, 
produce  that  unity  and  harmony  in  the  world  which  has 
already  been  produced  in  the  inner  life  of  the  different 
communities.  We  have  seen  how,  through  the  opera- 
tion of  that  principle,  the  hostile  spheres  of  interest  of 
different  groups  of  people  have  lost  their  bitterness  and 
have  been  merged  into,  or  identified  with,  •  spheres  of 
friendly  and  co-operating  interest.  The  gradual  growth 
of  an  organic  continuity  of  common  interest  is  the  living 
force  of  national  evolution,  a  force  which  has  reduced 
warring  interests  to  peaceful  co-operation,  and  has 
united  in  the  harmony  of  common  activities  and 
sympathies  peoples  who  were  separated  from  each  other 
by  what  seemed  insurmountable  barriers  of  race,  religion, 
civilization  and  culture  in  general.  Now  that  a  principle 
of  cultivated  reason  and  deliberate  moral  choice  has  been 
more  generally  introduced  into  the  manifestations  of  the 
national  spirit,  is  it  too  high  a  hope  that  the  operation 
of  the  same  harmonizing  forces  will  finally  obliterate 
some  of  the  more  poignant  differences  which  now 
accentuate  the  hostilities  of  different  nations,  and  that, 
too,  without  destroying  any  of  the  essential  factors  in 

260 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

the  free  and  independent  life  of  individual  communities  ? 
If  freedom  and  independence  are  to-day  enjoyed  by 
communities  separated  by  all  the  ancient  divisions  of 
race,  religion  and  culture,  but  united  in  common  devotion 
to  one  Imperial  purpose,  how  can  we  fear  that  freedom 
and  independence  may  be  destroyed  by  unity  of  action 
directed  towards  the  universal  realization  of  a  world 
for  ever  at  peace  ? 

Those   who,    like   the   present   writer,    believe    that 
the  same  forces   that  have  produced  nationality,   the 
harmonizer    of    competitive    interests    in    the    same 
community,  will  also  naturally  develop  themselves  to 
produce  harmony  amidst  the  competitive  interests  of 
different  communities,  are  opposed  by  a  school  of  thought 
which,    while   admitting  the   objective   reality   of   the 
principle  of  nationality  as  a  factor  in  human  evolution, 
regards  it  as  an  unmixed  evil  as  being  the  direct  cause 
of  war.     It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  before  developing 
the  thesis  that  nationality  is  the  natural  instrument  of 
peace,  the  writer  should  endeavour  to  remove  out  of  the 
way  the  difficulties  created  by  those  who  maintain  that 
it  is  the  fount  and  origin  of  all  the  mischiefs  that  cause 
trouble    between    different    communities.     The    writer 
believes  that  these  difficulties  are  based  upon  historical 
fallacies  and  unsubstantiated  predictions.     Mr.  J.   M. 
Robertson  and  Mr.  Norman  Angell,  in  their  pre-war 
attacks  upon  the  sentiment  of  nationality,  were  largely 
actuated  by  the  conviction  that  it  lay  at  the  root  of 
international  animosities;  but  both  these  able  writers 
founded  their  polemic  against  nationality  upon  the  theory 
that  it  had  no  historical  existence  or  justification  of 
any  sort,  being  to  the  one  an  hallucination,  to  the  other 
an  irrational  instinct.     Their  premises  being  untenable, 
as  previously  shown,  their  conclusions  are  irrelevant, 
for  one,  at  least,  who  regards  nationality  neither  as  an 
irrational  instinct  nor  an  hallucination.     It  is  proposed, 
therefore,  to  deal  rather  with  a  distinguished  American 
publicist  who,  accepting  a  view  not  greatly  different 
from  that  developed  in  these  pages  as  to  the  historical 
basis   of  nationality,   does,   nevertheless,   emphatically 
assert  that,  even  so,  it  is  the  cause  of  war,  and  as  such 
ought  to  be  eliminated  and  destroyed  as  a  principle  of 

261 


human  action.1  The  writer  in  question,  Mr.  Sydney 
Brooks,  not  only  repudiates  emphatically  the  fetish  of 
racial  nationality,  but  starts  with  a  clear  conception  of 
the  meaning  of  nationality  as  a  living  principle  of  social 
activity  at  the  present  time.  "  Patriotism — or  nation- 
ality," he  says,  "  was  never  a  more  stubborn  or  more 
jealous  fact  than  it  is  to-day.  Men  are  born  and  reared 
in  a  certain  atmosphere,  acquire  a  consciousness  limited 
to  their  frontiers,  accumulate  various  ideals,  modes  of 
life,  customs  and  characteristics,  distinctive  ways  of 
looking  at  things,  and  so  on ;  and  all  these  acquisitions 
become  intensely  dear  to  them,  become,  indeed,  a  part 
of  themselves,  and  intertwined  with  their  highest 
emotions  and  their  most  sacred  associations."  The 
expression  "  consciousness  limited  to  their  frontiers  " 
does  not  represent  the  full  truth,  because,  as  argued  in 
the  foregoing  chapters,  one  of  the  main  causes  of  the 
development  of  a  rich  and  vivid  national  sentiment  is 
the  generous  admixture  of  foreign  influences  in  the 
national  atmosphere;  and  nationality  is,  therefore,  by 
no  means  limited  to  a  consciousness  of  one's  own 
frontiers,  but  involves  as  an  essential  element  a  vigor- 
ously receptive  attitude  towards  sources  of  inspiration 
flowing  from  beyond  the  frontiers.  But  substantially 
Mr.  Brooks  has  the  right  view  that  nationality  is  a 
tradition  or  culture;  and  it  is,  therefore,  not  in  the 
fantasy  of  racial  kinship,  but  in  the  existence  of  separate 
national  lines  of  historical  development,  that  he  finds 
the  cause  of  war.  Because  separate  communities  have 
cultivated  separate  traditions,  and  give  a  high  value 
to  the  traditions  they  have  cultivated,  therefore  we  have 
wars.  The  evolution  of  civilization  on  its  present  lines 
is,  he  thinks,  inevitably  fraught  with  such  disasters  as 
that  we  have  just  endured.  "  For  the  root-cause  of 
this  appalling  convulsion,"  continues  Mr.  Brooks,  "  we 
shall  have  to  look  deeper  than  to  dynastic  ambitions 
or  bungling  diplomacy,  if  we  wish  to  find  the  compre- 
hensive source  which  it  must  be  the  business  of  Pacifists 
in  the  future  to  dam.  This  root-cause,  this  compre- 
hensive source,  I  take  to  be  nothing  less  than  the  fact 

1  The  Dream  of  Universal  Peace,  by  Sydney  Brooks  (Harper's  Monthly 
Magazine,  November  1916). 

262 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

and  sentiment  of  nationality."  Arid  not  only  does  he 
regard  it  as  the  cause  of  the  recent  war,  but  he  regards 
it  as  the  cause  of  war  in  general,  so  far,  at  least,  as  modern 
times  are  concerned.  "  To  those,"  he  proceeds,  "  who 
believe  in  and  dream  of  and  work  for  a  coming  time 
of  universal  peace,  I  would  say,  '  Nationality,  there  is 
the  enemy.'  '  And  again  :  "  There  is  a1  fundamental 
antinomy  between  Peace  and  Patriotism,"  with  many 
other  particular  passages  and  the  whole  general  argument 
to  the  same  effect. 

This  position,  the  position  of  anti-national  pacifism 
distinguished  from  pacifism  based  upon  the  recognition 
of  nationality  as  possessing  both  historical  and  ethical 
justification,  Mr.  Brooks  would  further  establish  by  the 
remedies  which  he  prescribes  for  the  disease.  These 
are  two,  and  they  are  alternatives.  One  is  already 
familiar  in  the  mid- Victorian  Crystal  Palace  platitude  of 
educating  men  into  "  citizen-of-the-worldism  "  ; 1  the 
other  and  the  shorter  road  is  for  some  one  power  to 
attain  to  dominion  over  the  modern  world  as  Rome 
attained  to  dominion  over  the  ancient  world.  "  Uni- 
versal peace,"  he  says,  "  may  come  as  the  result  of  a 
world-wide  despotism,  or  through  the  undermining  and 
destruction  of  the  sentiment  of  nationality,  and  the 
substitution  therefor  of  a  patriotism  co-existent  with 
humanity."  In  one  passage  he  does,  indeed,  seem  to 
suggest  a  third  remedy,  viz.,  "a  transformation  in  the 
moral  values,  judgments  and  instincts  of  mankind  " ;  but 
as  the  texture  of  his  previous  argument  makes  it  clear 
that  this  transformation  is  to  result  in  the  acceptance 
of  cosmopolitanism,  he  really  has  only  two  cures  to 
advertise,  or  perhaps,  after  all,  only  one,  the  destruction 
of -national  patriotism,  either  by  the  bloody  tyranny  of 
Welt-Macht  or  the  creeping  insidiousness  of  a  specious 
humanitarian  brotherhood. 

Now  those  who  have  found  themselves  able  to  admit 
that  view  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  nationality  main- 
tained in  the  foregoing  pages  will,  it  is  thought,  have  no 
option  but  to  agree  that  Mr.  Brooks  is  wrong  all  the 

1  "  Our  country  is  the  world-»-our  countrymen  are  mankind."  Motto 
of  the  Liberator,  W.  L.  Garrison's  anti -slavery  paper;  first  number 
issued  January  1,  1831. 

263 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

way  through,  wrong  in  his  statement  that  nationality 
was  the  cause  of  the  war,  wrong  in  his  assertion  that  it 
is  the  cause  of  war  in  general,  wrong  in  his  proposals 
for  remedying  the  evil  of  war.  Anti-national  pacifism, 
however,  is  based  upon  fallacies  so  specious  from  their 
humanitarian  appeal  that  it  is  the  plain  duty  of  those 
who  think  it  a  dangerous  and  foolish  heresy,  even  from 
the  humanitarian  point  of  view,  to  refute  in  detail  the 
assertions  made  and  the  arguments  propounded  in  its 
defence. 

Was  nationality,  then,  the  actual  root-cause  of  the 
latest  war?  That  the  fact  or  sentiment  of  nationality 
was  the  most  predominant  feature  in  the  war  cannot  be 
denied ;  neither  can  it  be  denied  that  the  British  Empire 
entered  the  war  in  defence  of  the  principle  of  nationality 
as  outraged  by  the  German  invasion  of  Belgium,  and  in 
defence  of  British  national  honour  as  pledged  to  protect 
Belgian  nationality.  But  why  is  it  that  as  the  war 
progressed  it  became  increasingly  clear  that  what  the 
Allies  were  fighting  for  was  to  defend  the  principle  of 
nationality  against  the  rise  of  a  world-power  determined 
to  destroy  it  ?  Why  is  it  that  in  England,  for  example, 
the  conviction  that  the  British  national  tradition,  our 
typical  and  individual  national  culture,  is  worth  every 
sacrifice  to  preserve  it,  has,  in  the  vast  majority  of  those 
who  enjoy  its  blessings,  assumed  the  characteristic 
fervour  of  a  religious  faith  ?  Why  did  our  national 
determination  to  throw  our  all  into  the  conflict  become 
clearer  and  stronger  and  purer  as  the  war  grew  older  ? 
Surely  because  events  made  it  certain  that  Germany, 
as  a  whole,  was  so  persuaded  of  the  superiority  of  her 
own  "  racial  "  culture  to  all  other  national  traditions 
whatsoever  that  she  wished  to  impose  it  on  the  world 
at  large,  partly  because  it  was  for  the  good  of  the  world 
at  large  that  this  should  be,  and  partly  because  she 
thought  that  the  "  race  "  possessing  such  a  culture  was 
predestined  to  universal  empire.  So  that  while  we 
declared  war  in  defence  of  Belgian  national  existence 
and  our  own  national  honour,  we  pursued  it  to  the  end 
in  defence  of  the  general  principle  of  nationality  against 
a  Power  pledged  to  destroy  it  for  every  people  except 
its  own.  So  that  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  the  senti- 
ment or  fact  of  nationality  played  a  prominent  part  in 

264 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  inception  and  execution  of  the  war.  But  what 
then?  If  I  take  up  arms  to  defend  something  I  love 
and  value,  is  the  existence  of  that  something  to  be 
blamed  as  the  cause  of  war.?  Is  it  not  rather  the  fact 
that  the  something  I  love  and  value  is  threatened? 
And  am  I  tamely  to  surrender  what  I  love  and  value 
lest  I  should  be  scolded  as  a  quarrelsome  person  ?  It  is 
the  threat  to  nationality  which  is  the  essential  kernel  of 
the  situation — that  is  the  cause  of  war,  and  not  the  mere 
existence  of  nationality.  Leave  it  in  peace  and,  under 
normal  conditions,  it  will  leave  you  in  peace.  Was 
Bathsheba  the  cause  of  her  husband's  death,  or  was  it 
the  concupiscence  of  the  King  of  Israel?  Mr.  Norman 
Angell,  the  very  Prince  of  Pacifists,  admits  that  a  nation 
may  go  to  war  if  its  nationality  is  threatened,  and  he 
thinks  that  nationality  is  a  mere  irrational  instinct. 

Nationality,  however,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not  a  mere 
irrational  instinct,  or  a  metaphysical  dream,  or  a  racial 
Mumbo-Jumbo,  or  an  hallucination.  It  is  the  concrete 
and  objective  result  of  the  historical  process  by  which 
modern  European  civilization  has  been  developed  out 
of  the  wreck  of  the  Roman  Empire  1500  years  ago. 
These  separate  streams  of  national  inspiration,  effort  and 
idealism,  all  enriching  the  world  with  their  variegated 
types  of  culture,  each  contributing  something  specific 
and  something  valuable  to  the  common  heritage  of 
humanity — these  are  pregnant  historical  facts,  the  issue 
of  ages  of  conscious  and  unconscious  human  effort, 
suffering,  self-sacrifice.1  They  are  not  of  to-day  only; 
they  have  their  roots  deeply  planted  in  the  historic  past. 
That  we  should  refuse  to  fight  for  our  national  tradition 
against  the  threat  of  destruction  or  limitation  would  be 
to  stultify  the  work  of  generations,  to  annihilate  the 
age-long  process  which  has  given  us  our  place  and 
mission  in  the  world. 

But  it  is  not  nationality  that  is  the  cause  of  war,  nor 
even  our  willingness  to  fight  in  defence  of  nationality. 
Nations  have  not  always  been  at  war.  They  have 
enjoyed  long  and  frequent  intervals  of  peace  unaccom- 
panied by  any  serious  decadence  in  national  sentiment. 
They  have  even  kept  out  of  war  lest  their  nationality 

1  "  The  life  of  the  world  becomes  poorer  and  more  uniform  for  each 
national  individuality  which  disappears  "  (Poland,  by  George  Brandes). 

265 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

should  be  endangered,  as  some  nations  have  done  in 
our  own  time.  But  if  nationality  is  the  cause  of  war 
in  the  warring  nations,  logical  decency  compels  the 
admission  that  it  is  the  cause  of  peace  in  the  peaceful 
nations.  If  Belgian  nationality  was  the  cause  of  the 
Great  War,  then  it  was  equally  the  cause  of  peace,  so 
long  as  it  was  left  unthreatened  and  unattacked. 
Nationality,  in  truth,  is  neither  the  cause  of  war  nor  the 
cause  of  peace,  any  more  than  personal  individuality  is 
the  cause  of  quarrelsomeness  or  the  cause  of  quiet  living. 
It  all  depends  on  the  person,  his  separate  individual 
characteristics,  and  the  amount  of  injury  he  can  bear 
without  feeling  compelled  to  hit  back.  Would  it  not  be 
equally  true  or  false  to  say  that  it  was  nationality  which 
for  so  long  kept  America  out  of  the  war  as  it  is  to  say 
that  it  was  nationality  which  plunged  her  and  the  other 
belligerent  peoples  into  war?  America  joined  in  the 
war  when  her  national  rights  and  her  national  existence 
were  threatened  beyond  a  point  which  she  could  endure 
with  national  dignity  and  national  security.  It  is  not 
nationality  as  such  that  is  the  cause  of  war,  but  the 
threat  to  nationality — which  is  quite  a  different  matter.1 
Some  one,  however,  may  perhaps  be  inclined  to  suggest 
that  nationality  is  the  cause  of  war  because  the  excessive 
admiration  of  the  German  people  for  their  own  nation- 
ality and  its  culture  lay  at  the  root  of  the  recent  war. 
The  premiss  has  considerable  truth ;  the  conclusion  is 
false.  Excessive  admiration  for  one's  own  national 
culture  is  the  disease  of  nationality,  the  very  pathology 
of  patriotism,  the  madness  of  nationality;  just  as  an 
individual  person's  excessive  admiration  of  himself  and 
his  attainments  is  the  disease,  and  may  become  the 
madness,  of  personality.  That  German  nationality  is 
thoroughly  diseased  and  corrupted  in  this  respect  is  a 
fact  which  no  reasonable  man  can  doubt.  The  German 
claim  to  world  dominion,  based  upon  the  superiority 
of  the  German  "  race,"  has  been  advanced  by  so  many 
representative  German  thinkers — men  to  whom  in  times 
of  peace,  and  on  other  subjects,  we  had  listened  with 
respect  and  admiration — that  it  is  impossible  not  to 

1  "  Not  the  desire  of  nationality,  but  the  desire  to  destroy  nation- 
ality, is  what  makes  the  wars  of  nationality." — Norman  Angell,  War 
and  the  Essential  JKealities,  p.  51. 

266 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

recognize  it  as  the  dominant  trait  in  the  German  national 
tradition.  The  innumerable  and  typical  manifestations 
of  Teutonic  megalomania  read  like  the  ravings  of 
delirium  tremens,  or  the  fantastic  delusions  of  nightmare. 
When  our  memory  of  the  war  is  less  acute  than  now 
we  shall  regard  them  as  incredible,  unless  we  recall  them 
by  reference  to  the  written  records.  They  are  the 
delusions  of  madness,  none  the  less  madness  because  of 
the  method  that  guides  them,  the  false  philosophy  that 
inspires  them.  There  is,  indeed,  no  madman  so  mad  as 
a  madman  with  a  theory,  as  any  doctor  in  a  lunatic 
asylum  can  witness;  and,  of  course,  the  German  mad- 
ness, like  everything  else  German,  finds  its  justification 
in  a  philosophic  system.  Long  before  Droysen  and 
Treitschke  and  von  Bernhardi  and  Chamberlain  venti- 
lated their  Pan-Germanism,  Hegel  elaborated  his 
particular  version  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Absolute,  and 
it  is  on  that  philosophy  that  the  German  megalomania 
finally  rests.  With  his  general  views  on  the  method  by 
which  the  Absolute,  that  fantastic  fetish  of  the  meta- 
physical medicine-man,  enters  into  the  world  of  pheno- 
mena we  need  not  at  present  concern  ourselves.  But 
it  is  pertinent  to  our  purpose  to  note  how,  with  the 
terrible  consistency  of  German  logic,  he  extends  his 
philosophy  of  the  Absolute  to  the  sphere  of  history  and 
politics.  In  his  Philosophy  uf  Right,  with  that  anthropo- 
morphism which  metaphysicians  who  have  attacked 
religion  have  borrowed  from,  its  crudest  forms,  he  gives 
real  existence  to  what  is,  after  all,  a  merely  verbal 
generalization.  He  conceives  the  process  of  political 
evolution  as  an  active  spirit,  "  a  universal  idea,  or  kind, 
or  species,"  which  "  has  absolute  authority  over  indi- 
vidual states." — "  This  is  the  spirit  which  gives  itself 
reality  in  the  process  of  world-history." — "  It  is  the 
self-caused,  self-existent  spirit,  which  presents  itself 
as  the  universal  and  efficient  leaven  of  world-history." 
This  spirit  has  embodied  itself  in  successive  nations  to 
whom  for  the  time  has  been  given  absolute  right  over 
all  other  nations.  Oriental,  Greek,  and  Roman  Empires 
have,  in  turn,  been  incarnations  of  this  spiritual  power, 
"  temporary  actualizations  of  the  universal  spirit." — 
"  To  each  nation  is  to  be  ascribed  a  single  principle 
comprised  under  its  geographical  and  anthropological 

267 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

existence.  To  the  nation  whose  natural  principle  is 
one  of  these  stages  is  assigned  the  accomplishment  of 
it  through  the  process  characteristic  of  the  self-developing 
self-consciousness  of  the  world-spirit.  In  the  history 
of  the  world  this  nation  is  for  a  given  epoch  dominant, 
although  it  can  make  an  epoch  but  once.  In  contrast 
with  the  absolute  right  of  this  nation  to  be  the  bearer 
of  the  current  phase  in  the  development  of  the  world- 
spirit,  the  spirits  of  other  existing  nations  are  void  of 
right,  and  they,  like  those  whose  epochs  are  gone,  count  no 
longer  in  the  history  of  the  world"  The  German  Empire 
is  the  final  incarnation  of  the  spirit,  representing  a  "  new 
discovery  "  in  its  operation  upon  the  political  world. 
"  The  new  discovery  is  the  unity  of  the  divine  and  the 
human.  By  means  of  it  objective  truth  is  reconciled 
with  freedom,  and  that,  too,  inside  of  self-consciousness 
and  subjectivity.  This  new  basis,  infinite  and  yet 
positive,  it  has  been  charged  upon  the  Northern  principle 
of  the  Germanic  nations  to  bring  to  completion."  1 

Here,  of  course,  we  have  one  of  those  pseudo-philo- 
sophical theories  which  metaphysicians  have  in  all  ages, 
through  the  generous  contempt  of  intelligent  men,  been 
allowed  to  spin  for  the  alleviation  of  their  own  solitude 
and  the  admiration  of  the  ignorant.  Even  when  the 
theory  was  expanded  into  the  blatant  puerilities  of 
Chamberlain,  the  blind  Anglophobia  of  Treitschke,  and 
the  bloodthirstiness  of  Bernhardi,  it  was  still  neglected 
as  the  intellectual  plaything  of  a  few  historical  and 
military  special  pleaders.  But  when  it  became 'the 
main  plank  in  the  historico-philosophical  education  of 
a  whole  community ;  when  it  was  craftily  allied  with  the 
national  pride  of  a  people  who  made  a  boast  of  their 
old  furor  Teutonicus  ;  when  the  arrogance  of  "  race  " 
was  wedded  to  the  arrogance  of  a  metaphysical  egotism ; 
the  combination  led  inevitably  to  the  Peace  of  Brest  - 
Litovsk  and  the  exploitation  of  Russia,  to  the  spiritual 
and  material  annihilation  of  Belgium,  Serbia  and 
Roumania.  Such  a  theory,  leading  to  such  a  catastrophe, 

1  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  Right,  translated  by  S.  W.  Dyde,  M.A.,  D.Sc. 
(London  :  Geo.  Bell  &  Sons,  1896),  pp.  342-3.  On  p.  347  Hegel  refers 
to  Dr.  Stuhr's  Vom  Untergange  der  Naturstaaten,  and  says :  "  The 
principle  of  subjectivity  and  self-conscious  freedom  he  ascribes  to  the 
German  nation." 

268 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

indubitably  exhibits  the  very  madness  of  national  pride 
and  egotism,  the  disease  of  nationality.  The  pet  phrase 
of  the  German  ruling  classes,  "  Welt-Macht  oder  Nieder- 
gang,"  is  clearly  no  mere  audacious  epigram,  but  a 
summary  of  tendencies  long  current  among  the  German 
people,  and  supported  by  that  transcendental  meta- 
physics to  which,  in  one  form  or  another,  they  have 
constantly  been  so  partial.  The  fact  that  common- 
sense,  the  ancient  and  eternal  enemy  of  metaphysics, 
has  been  eliminated  by  the  German  metaphysicians 
from  the  sphere  of  politics,  while  other  metaphysicians 
have  had  the  saving  grace  to  be  illogical  in  that  respect, 
has  but  served  to  make  German  metaphysicians  madder 
than  the  rest,  and  their  representative  statesmen 
enemies  of  the  human  race. 

Not  nationality,  therefore,  the  sane  and  normal 
pride  of  a  healthy  people  in  its  historic  achievements 
and  its  legitimate  aspirations,  made  the  Germans  go  to 
war;  it  was  the  disease  of  nationality  which  actuated 
their  grandiose  crusade  against  humanity ;  it  was  their 
false  and  fantastic  notion  of  their  own  nationality.  If 
an  individual  member  of  society  exhibits  such  character- 
istics to  a  degree  that  is  dangerous  to  himself  or  his 
fellows,  he  is  sequestered  in  a  gaol  or  a  lunatic  asylum; 
but  men  of  sane  and  moderate  character  are  not 
restrained  from  cultivating  their  personal  gifts  and 
exhibiting  their  personal  accomplishments  within  the 
limits  assigned  by  the  right  of  other  sane  and  moderate 
men  to  do  the  same.  It  is  a  flagrant  abuse  of  terms  to 
say  that  nationality  is  the  cause  of  war ;  it  is  diseased 
and  corrupted  nationality.  It  is  pride,  ambition, 
selfishness,  inordinate  lust  of  power.  The  so-called 
antinomy  between  Peace  and  Patriotism  does  not  exist ; 
what  does  exist  is  the  eternal  antinomy  between  Passion 
and  Self-Control,  between  Madness  and  Sanity,  between 
Wisdom  and  Folly. 

We  have  now  to  deal  with  the  remedies  for  war 
proposed  by  the  anti-nationalistic  Pacifists.  These 
are,  one  remembers,  the  destruction  of  nationality  by 
some  Power  which  has  attained  universal  dominion 
such  as  that  of  which  the  Germans  have  dreamed,  or 
by  the  transmutation  of  nationality  into  so-called 
cosmopolitanism. 

269 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

The  Germans,  as  is  well  known,  promised  universal 
peace  as  the  result  of  their  universal  dominion.  Peace, 
indeed,  it  might  be,  but  such  as  that  once  attributed  to 
Rome  by  a  British  prince  :  solitudinem  faciunt,  pacem 
appellant  ;  l  desolation  they  create,  and  call  that  peace ; 
as  they  have  done  in  Belgium  and  France  and  Serbia 
and  Roumania  and  Russia  to-day.  No  material  desola- 
tion merely,  but  a  desolation  which  chokes  the  primeval 
springs  of  a  nation's  spiritual  existence.  Mr.  Brooks 
quotes  Rome  as  a  parallel  and  an  example  for  his 
desiderated  modern  world-tyranny.  But  although  the 
sense  of  nationality  had  not  generally  attained  in 
Classical  times  anything  like  its  present  degree  of  pas- 
sionate intensity,  yet  it  is  a  truism  that  Rome  interfered 
as  little  as  possible  with  the  local  beliefs,  habits  and 
traditions  of  the  peoples  whom  she  incorporated  into 
her  Empire.  A  patriotic  Greek  like  Plutarch  can 
honestly  advise  his  patriotic  fellow-countrymen  to 
cultivate  their  national  life  within  the  limits  assigned  by 
Rome,  whose  Empire  he  describes,  from  the  political 
point  of  view,  as  the  most  beautiful  of  all  human 
creations,  echoing  the  very  words  of  a  patriotic  Roman 
poet  in  the  tribute  he  pays  to  her  as  a  Greek.2 

But  did  the  generous  policy  of  Rome,  thus  generously 
recognized,  serve  to  secure  eternal  and  universal  peace  ? 
How  long  did  the  portals  of  the  Temple  of  Janus  remain 
shut,  even  during  the  Pax  Romana  of  Trajan  and  the 
Antonines?  And  can  it  be  imagined  for  one  moment 
that,  even  under  the  dominion  of  a  world-power,  uni- 
versal and  eternal  peace  will  reign  unless  the  dominant 
power  comes  to  terms  with  the  spirit  of  nationality 
among  the  subject  peoples,  as  Rome  did,  as  we  have  done 
with  Boer  nationality,  with  Scottish,  Canadian  and 
Australian  nationality,  and  as  we  shall  have  to  do  with 
Irish  nationality  and  Indian  nationality,  which,  in  the 
last-named  case,  our  own  administration  has  created 
and  fostered  ?  It  is  possible  that  regular  warfare  might 
cease  for  a  time  under  the  technical  domination  of  a 
world-power,  but  it  would  be  followed  by  a  period  of 
the  most  internecine  irregular  war  that  the  world  has 

1  Tacitus,  Agricola,  30. 

*  Plutarch,  De  Fortuna  Romano/rum,  316  E.  Virgil,  Georglcs,  IL 
534. 

270 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

ever  known  :  a  war  of  plots  and  rebellions,  of  assassina- 
tions and  insurrections,  of  desperate  attempts  to  regain 
liberty  and  bloody  attempts  at  repression.  The  world 
would  be  at  perpetual  war,  either  until  national  inde- 
pendence had  been  fully  regained  or  until  the  dominating 
Power  had  been  compelled  to  concede  so  much  to  the 
spirit  of  nationality  that  its  actual  essence  would  flourish 
under  a  merely  verbal  supremacy.  The  dominating 
Power  would  either  be  in  a  state  of  constant  war,  or  it 
would  have  to  recognize  nationality.  It  is  the  merest 
confusion  of  thought,  therefore,  to  say  that  the  dominion 
of  a  world-power  would  destroy  war  by  destroying 
nationality.  It  is  impossible  to  see  in  such  a  suggestion 
anything  but  a  means  of  plunging  the  whole  world  into 
a  period  of  barbarian  anarchy  which  would  be  prolonged 
until  its  various  peoples  had  attained  the  same  position 
of  separate  national  independence  which  they  actually 
enjoy  to-day.  And  then,  presumably,  upon  this  hypo- 
thesis of  the  anti-national  Pacifists,  the  whole  process 
would  repeat  itself  once  more.  History  may,  indeed,  as 
some  have  thought,  develop  itself  in  circles,  but  hardly, 
one's  sanity  believes,  in  such  a  vicious  circle  as  this. 

What,  then,  about  the  other  "  remedy,"  the  gradual 
substitution  of  a  spirit  of  humanitarian  cosmopolitanism 
in  place  of  the  present  intensive  consciousness  of  nation- 
ality, so  that,  as  Mr.  Brooks  says,  "  men  cease  to  think 
of  themselves  as  belonging  to  this  country  or  that,  but 
simply  and  naturally  as  citizens  of  the  world "  ?  But 
this,  of  course,  is  an  old  story  now;  it  has  not  only  been 
debated  on  a  thousand  platforms,  and  in  innumerable 
publications,  but  it  has  been  a  theme  developed  by  the 
practical  demonstration  of  a  millennium  of  European 
history.  The  Catholic  Church  cherished  the  grandiose 
conception  of  a  civitas  Dei,  a  Holy  State,  a  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  coterminous  with  the  boundaries  of  the  dis- 
covered world.  This  conception  was  sanctioned  and 
imposed  by  all  the  authority  of  religion  when  religion 
was  the  greatest  existent  force  for  moulding  the  char- 
acters, forming  the  thoughts  and  directing  the  actions 
of  mankind.  It  was  supported  in  practice  by  a  system 
of  ecclesiastical  administration  which  gave  Asiatic 
bishops  to  Canterbury,  English  prelates  to  French  and 
German  Sees,  made  a  Cappadocian  the  patron  saint 

271 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

of  England,  and  an  Englishman  the  patron  saint  of 
Finland.  We  may  readily  agree  that  this  ecclesiastical 
cosmopolitanism  accomplished  much  good  in  broadening 
the  intellectual  outlook  of  men  and  in  admitting  the 
peoples  of  Christendom  to  the  knowledge  that  they 
possessed  certain  spiritual  aims  as  a  common  heritage. 
But  even  so,  the  influx  of  foreign  elements  into  a  national 
current  strengthened  the  characteristic  national  culture 
at  the  same  time  as  it  broadened  and  diversified  its 
content.  And  although  a  German  emperor  went  to 
Canossa  as  a  submissive  slave  of  the  spiritual  domain ; 
although  the  inspiration  of  a  common  faith  could  stir 
the  whole  of  Europe  to  religious  crusades  against  Infidels 
abroad  or  to  religious  persecutions  against  Heretics 
at  home;  although  for  a  thousand  years  the  mind  of 
Europe  as  a  whole  was  dominated  by  a  theological 
tyranny  more  extreme  than  any  ever  wielded  by  a 
temporal  Power;  yet  the  national  idea  could  not  be 
crushed;  it  grew  stronger  on  oppression;  it  entirely 
eliminated  the  power  of  the  Papacy  in  many  States, 
while  even  in  the  rest  the  two  powers  existed  side  by 
side,  the  spiritual  power  growing  constantly  weaker  as 
civilization  advanced,  until  at  last  there  was  no  country 
in  Europe  whose  religion  was  not  guided  by  national 
aims  and  subjected  to  national  ideals.  If  the  eternal 
prestige  of  Christian  Rome,  wielding  all  the  terrors  and 
hopes  of  religion,  apportioning  all  the  rewards  of  submis- 
sion and  all  the  penalties  of  rebellion,  both  here  and  in 
the  hereafter,  failed  to  make  man  a  citizen  of  the  world, 
to  what  principle  of  human  action  can  we  look  with  any 
expectation  of  realizing  that  elusive  dream  ? 

If  universally  organized  religion  failed,  can  we  expect 
that  humanitarian  sentiment,  even  when  cherished  with 
religious  fervour,  will  succeed  ?  The  French  Revolution, 
with  its  appeals,  at  once  passionate  and  philosophic, 
to  the  brotherhood  of  man,  actually  gave  new  life  to 
national  idealism.  The  very  tyrannies  against  which 
men  fought  in  the  revolutionary  movements  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  national  tyrannies,  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  as  an  operative  political  principle, 
limited  its  action  to  the  brotherhood  of  those  who  were 
striving  for  freedom  within  their  own  national  boun- 
daries. The  slumbering  national  traditions  of  Greece, 

272 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

Roumania,  Serbia  and  Bulgaria  were  re-awakened  by 
inspiration  found  in  Paris;  and  the  universal  brother- 
hood of  man  taught  there  translated  itself  into  the 
national  brotherhood  of  Serbians,  or  Roumanians,  or 
Bulgarians,  or  Greeks.  It  is  perhaps  possible,  at  any 
rate  academically  conceivable,  that  men  may  at  some 
distant  date,  especially  if  stimulated  in  that  direction 
by  a  hostile  invasion  from  some  other  planet,  regard 
themselves  "  quite  simply  and  naturally  "  as  citizens 
of  the  world ;  just  as  it  is  possible  that  one  day  the  sun 
will  be  quite  cold  and  there  will  then  be  an  end  of  us 
all,  patriots  and  cosmopolitans  alike.  But  as  a  matter 
of  hard  historical  fact  our  European  civilization  has 
developed,  and  is  to-day  developing,  on  national  lines. 
Nationality  is  the  master  light  of  all  our  seeing;  the 
fountain  light  of  all  our  day.  Mr.  Brooks  says,  quite 
wrongly  it  is  clear,  that  in  the  matter  of  nationality  the 
cultured  sensibilities  of  humanity  are  at  odds  with  its 
primal  instincts.  But  the  fact  is  that  nationality  is 
not  a  primal  instinct  at  all.  It  is  the  result  of  the 
evolution  of  the  whole  mass  of  human  qualities,  senti- 
mental, intellectual,  literary,  artistic,  religious,  scientific, 
political.  It  is  the  one  supreme,  ineluctable  fact  of  our 
modern  civilization.  The  world-power  of  Rome  fell 
before  it ;  the  dominating  authority  of  spiritual  despotism 
crumbled  away  under  its  influence.  History,  at  any 
rate,  gives  no  sanction  to  the  theory  that  nationality 
which  has  overthrown  and  slain  cosmopolitanism, 
whether  as  world-power  or  humanitarian  sentiment, 
will,  in  its  turn,  be  overthrown  and  slain  by  its 
resuscitated  victim. 

If,  then,  it  is  futile  to  look  for  eternal  peace  amid  the 
anticipated  ruin  of  national  idealism,  in  what  principle, 
in  what  power,  in  what  course  of  action,  can  we  see  the 
possibility  of  a  remedy  for  the  evils  which  admittedly 
co-exist  with  the  present  state  of  affairs?  The  writer 
confesses  that  he  is  of  the  opinion  that  nationality,  so 
far  from  being  the  cause  of  war,  is  actually  the  one 
instrument  destined,  if  wisely  directed,  to  secure  lasting 
and  universal  peace ;  and  to  some  considerations  bearing 
on  this  head  will  be  devoted  the  next  and  concluding 
chapter  of  his  book. 

T  273 


CHAPTER  XV 

Nationality  as  the  Instrument  of  Peace ;  Nationality  can  be  deprived 
of  its  dangerous  Elements  by  the  Operation  of  the  same  Causes 
as  those  which  produced  it — National  Organization  for  Purposes 
of  Peace — Cosmopolitan  Ideals  invalid  without  national  Machinery 
to  work  them — The  Growth  of  international  Community  of  Interest 
dependent  upon  international  Action  to  secure  common  Ends — 
In  History  Action  comes  first,  Theory  and  philosophical  Justifica- 
tion afterwards — Nationality  and  Militarism — Pre-war  Signs  of 
the  Operation  of  the  Principle  of  joint  Action  in  the  international 
Sphere :  The  "  Concert  of  Europe,"  "  European  Unity,"  the 
"  Federation  of  Europe  " — The  Demand  for  a  "  League  of  Nations  " 
in  Relation  to  the  slow  historical  Growth  of  a  Sense  of  common 
Interest — The  Danger  of  hasty  and  revolutionary  Methods : 
Universal  and  lasting  Peace  attainable  by  a  cautious  Application 
of  the  Lessons  of  History. 

IT  is,  perhaps,  inevitable  that  to  the  minds  of  some 
of  his  readers  the  suggestion  should  occur  that  the 
writer  has  been  inclined  to  place  nationality  on  too 
lofty  a  pedestal,  that  he  has  regarded  it,  in  and  for 
itself,  as  a  final  and  satisfactory  end  of  social  develop- 
ment. The  suspicion,  however,  is  unfounded.  Nation- 
ality, with  all  its  splendid  accomplishments  in  unifying 
warring  communities,  with  all  its  inspiration  to  guide 
individual  citizens  towards  self-sacrifice  for  social  ends, 
is  but  a  phase  in  human  evolution,  and  will  eventually 
be  lauded  or  condemned  only  so  far  as  it  has  contributed 
to  the  happiness  of  the  world  as  a  whole.  No  sane 
thinker,  no  historical  student,  would  wish  to  prophesy 
what  will  be  the  final  character  of  terrestrial  society,  if 
a  final  character  it  is  destined  to  achieve.  But  the 
writer,  at  any  rate,  would  be  false  to  every  principle 
laid  down  in  the  preceding  pages;  he  would  be  false 
to  what  is  highest  and  best  in  the  great  benefactors  of 
humanity;  if  he  did  not  cherish  a  hope  that  the  next 
stage  of  social  evolution  will  be  one  in  which  peace, 
employed  with  intelligence  and  organized  towards  social 
ends,  will  furnish  the  fullest  opportunity  for  the  develop- 

274 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

ment  of  all  human  excellence.  Peace,  universal  peace, 
must  surely  be  the  ideal  of  every  man  who  has  a  social 
conscience  delicate  enough  to  recognize  that  so  long  as 
there  is  room  on  earth  for  every  man,  every  man  has 
an  inalienable  right  to  live  on  the  earth,  and  to  develop 
his  individual  and  social  qualities  unchecked  save  by 
the  right  of  every  other  man  to  do  the  same  and  no 
more.  This  is  the  simple  principle  that  has  given 
cohesion  and  strength  to  the  most  highly  civilized 
communities ;  and  it  is  a  natural  extension  of  the  same 
principle  to  regard  it  as  the  inevitable  cause  of  the 
coming  cohesion  between  nations  still  distracted  by 
warring  interests  which  have  hitherto  threatened  to 
make  international  cohesion  impossible. 

Such  being  the  ideal,  how  can  one  help  to  realize  it  ? 
The  answer  follows  inevitably  for  those  who  accept 
the  positions  explained  in  the  previous  chapters.  The 
principle  and  the  machinery  of  nationality,  which  can 
be,  and  have  frequently  been,  made  the  instruments  of 
war,  must  now  be  directed  and  organized  towards  the 
accomplishment  of  peace.  Again  it  must  be  insisted 
that  nationality,  so  far  from  being  that  sort  of  sinister 
and  supernatural  monstrosity  which  the  anti-national 
Pacifist  deems  it,  is  in  reality  a  simple  and  natural 
product  of  social  evolution.  It  is  the  work  of  men's 
minds  and  men's  hands,  and  can  be  directed  and  con- 
trolled by  men's  minds  and  men's  hands.  It  is  not 
the  mere  worship  of  that  silly  and  superannuated  fetish 
of  racial  distinctions  which  are  supposed  to  "  destine  " 
one  "race"  to  empire  and  another  to  slavery.  It  is 
not  founded  solely  upon  any  single  passion  or  quality 
of  human  nature;  it  is  the  progressive,  synthetical 
development  of  all  of  them  alike  towards  one  harmonious 
culmination.  It  is  the  end  of  the  social  process  by 
which  scattered  elements  of  mutually  antagonistic 
activity  are  organically  welded  into  a  common  and 
continuous  solidarity — a  solidarity  affecting  the  spiritual, 
intellectual,  moral  and  artistic  powers  of  man,  and  all 
their  manifold  activities  in  the  sphere  of  human  achieve- 
ment. It  is  as  an  organism  that  nationality  has 
developed  a  highly  elaborate  and  complicated  machinery 
for  entering  into  relationships  with  other  organisms; 

275 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

and,  being  a  human  organism,  one  function  of  its 
machinery  is  the  exercise  of  a  selecting  and  guiding 
intelligence  capable  of  diverting  its  own  activities 
into  directions  intellectually  and  morally  conceived  as 
desirable.  That  machinery,  with  all  its  apparatus  of 
international  relationships,  its  Governments,  its  Ministers 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  its  Ambassadors,  its  Diplomatists, 
its  connexions  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  Music,  Litera- 
ture, Sport,  Science,  its  intersocial  life,  its  foreign 
travel,  its  international  societies  of  Learning  and 
Labour — all  these  are  the  product  of  characteristic- 
ally national  life;  and  if  many  of  them  have  hitherto 
been  too  .frequently  used  as  channels  of  international 
animosity,  it  is  only  as  channels,  and  the  same  source 
and  fountain  of  national  life  which  used  them  to  pour 
a  flood  of  hatred,  contempt  and  jealousy  upon  other 
communities  can,  under  proper  inspiration,  use  them 
as  readily  to  flood  the  world  with  streams  of  beneficent 
activity.  The  same  mechanical  appliances,  the  same 
workshops,  the  same  men,  that  before  the  war  were 
devoted  to  the  operations  of  peace  and  were  during  the 
war  utilized  for  the  manufacture  of  munitions  of  war, 
will  be  diverted  again  to  peaceful  purposes  when  the 
war  is  finally  over.  The  aeroplane  that  kills  a  family  by 
their  fireside  to-night  will  to-morrow  create  new,  and 
strengthen  ancient,  ties,  by  carrying  familiar  corre- 
spondence to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  globe  with 
the  speed  of  Ariel.  There  are  some  writers  who  imagine 
that  any  connotation  of  the  word  "  national  "  is  essen- 
tially and  inevitably  evil ;  that  the  principle  of  nation- 
ality is  in  eternal  opposition  to  liberty  and  justice.1 
But  a  more  philosophical  diagnosis  discloses  the  fact 

1  "  There  is  no  region  of  the  earth  where  the  national  idea  has 
wrought  such  havoc  or  rioted  in  such  wantonness  of  power  as  in  Mace- 
donia.— One  turns  from  a  survey  of  these  races  and  their  rivalries, 
.asking  what  future  of  peace  and  common  work  there  can  be  while 
the  curse  of  this  national  idea  still  teaches  men  that  the  vital  fact  in 
their  lives  is  the  tradition,  or  the  memory,  or  the  habit  of  speech, 
which  divides  them  from  one  another." — Macedonia :  Its  Eaces  and 
their  Future,  by  H.  N.  Brailsford  (Methuen  &  Co.,  1906),  p.  107.  And 
yet  Mr.  Brailsford  makes  it  quite  clear  that  the  main  cause  of  the 
trouble  is  not  the  existence  of  the  separate  traditions,  but  the  constant 
endeavour  to  subvert  them  or  "  assimilate "  them  by  means  of 
"  propaganda." 

276 


that,  like  all  other  human  creations,  it  is  as  capable 
of  direction  towards  beneficent  as  to  maleficent  ends. 
If  secret  diplomacy  is  evil,  the  skill,  the  tact,  the  delicacy, 
the  experience  acquired  by  secret  diplomacy  will  not 
be  wasted  when  diplomacy  becomes  as  open  as  the 
day.  If  an  oligarchy  or  an  autocracy  perverts  national 
institutions  to  base  or  selfish  purposes,  what  is  to 
prevent  democracy  from  using  the  same  machinery  for 
rioble  and  altruistic  ends?  There  is  not  a  general 
election  which  does  not  demonstrate  how  the  same 
national  administrative  system  can  be  made  the  means 
of 'realizing  different  national  ideals.  We  can  have  a 
Conservative,  a  Liberal,  a  Labour  Government  to  express 
our  national  purposes;  but  the  varying  Governments 
use  the  same  administrative  institutions,  the  essential 
difference  being  in  the  spirit  which  actuates  them. 
And  if,  as  is  clearly  the  case,  we  must  use  the  organized 
results  of  ages  of  administrative  experience  in  our  national 
transactions,  it  is  incredible  that  we  should  discard  the 
same  experience  in  dealing  with  international  affairs.  , 
The  machinery  slowly  evolved  by  the  needs  and  activities 
of  many  generations  is  ready  to  our  hands ;  the  problem 
is  how  to  convert  it  to  entirely  beneficial  purposes. 

To  many  people  these  are,  of  course,  mere  academical 
truisms,  but  the  views  urged  by  the  cosmopolitan 
necessitate  their  emphatic  repetition.  How  shall  I 
enter,  as  the  cosmopolitan  wishes  me  to  enter,  into 
friendly  relationships,  as  one  only  of  50,000,000  Britons, 
with  every  one  of  50,000,000  Germans  or  Japanese,  the 
sole  connexus  of  relationship  being  some  imagined 
allegiance  to  "  God,  the  Invisible  King  "  of  all  of  us 
alike  ?  l  Even  with  national  emotion  at  its  present 
pitch,  I  cannot  enter  into  friendly  relationships  with 
the  49,999,999  other  Britons.  It  is  almost  as  much  as 
I  can  do  to  avoid  quarrelling,  even  about  the  war,  with 
the  odd  nine  with  whom  I  am  brought  into  personal 

1  I  find  that  I  am  repeating  Mr. .Norman  Angell  here.  "We  talk 
of  hating  or  of  having  a  friendship  for  Germany  or  '  Germans ' — 
sixty-four  million  men,  women  and  children  whom  we  have  never 
seen,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  never  can  see  "  (War  and  the  Essential 
Realities,  p.  29).  But  Mr.  Angell,  of  course,  attaches  to  the  illustration 
quite  a  different  moral  from  that  appended  to  it  in  the  text. 

277 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

contact ;  and  there  are  many  with  whom  I  shun  personal 
contact.  For  anything  beyond  merely  restricted  in- 
dividual activity,  for  any  extension  of  my  work  into 
even  the  smallest  social  spheres,  I  must  join  some 
organized  body  with  whose  general  aims  I  am  in  syrri- 
pathy.  Even  Mr.  Britling,  when  he  wrote  that  touching 
personal  letter  to  the  unknown  German  father  of  his 
private  secretary,  did  not  post  his  missive,  doubtless 
restrained  by  the  thought  that  there  are  domestic  and 
personal  delicacies  which  the  deepest  sympathy  dare 
not  violate.1  There  are  to-day  thousands  of  English- 
men who  talk  of  never  having  personal  dealings  with 
any  German  again  so  long  as  they  are  alive;  and  the 
compliment  is  returned  by  thousands  of  Germans.  But 
such  an  attitude  is  equally  irrational  and  impossible. 
If  we,  as  Britons,  wish  to  mark  our  abhorrence  of 
German  culture  as  exhibited  during  the  war,  the  only 
practical  way  in  which  we  can  make  our  abhorrence 
effective  is  to  choose  a  Government  pledged  to  respon- 
sibility for  such  a  policy  as  will  leave  individual  citizens 
no  choice  in  the  matter.  Only  by  using  national  adminis- 
trative machinery  can  the  national  will  be  carried  into 
action;  only  by  means  of  national  institutions  can  we 
enter  into  relationship  with  other  nationalities.  Our 
own  national  organization  is  powerful,  elaborate,  firmly 
established,  capable  of  far-reaching  results  for  good  or 
evil  throughout  the  world,  rich  in  experience,  energetic 
in  action,  fertile  in  contrivance,  the  product  of  our  own 
culture,  the  faithful  reflex  of  our  national  character, 
the  effective  instrument  of  our  national  purposes.  This 
strong  and  subtle  creation  is  available  as  an  instrument 
of  international  peace  as  soon  as  the  British  democracy 
has  made  up  its  mind  that  international  peace  is  what 
it  really  wants. 

It  would  carry  the  writer  far  beyond  his  legitimate 
purpose  if  he  were  to  enter  into  the  details  of  a  demo- 
cratic   programme    for    the    "  capture "    of    national 
machinery  by  political  parties  actuated  with  the  desire 
of  universal  and  lasting  peace.     The  air,  too,  is  clamor- 
ous with  the  cries  of  those  more  expert  politicians  whose 
knowledge  of  the  slow  attainment  of  even  the  smallest 
1  Mr.  Britling  Sees  it  Through,  p.  432. 
278 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

domestic  reform  does  not  warn  them  against  the  pro- 
duction of  ready-made  nostrums  for  the  instantaneous 
realization  of  the  grandiose  conception  of  universal 
peace.  The  most  salutary  lesson  that  can  be  deduced 
from  history  takes  the  form  of  a  threat  against  those 
who  rush  without  preparation  into  revolutionary  courses, 
and,  for  our  present  purpose,  inculcates  the 'view  that 
only  a  democracy  fully  educated  in  what  it  means  to 
be  a  nation  can  decide  with  reason  and  justice  the 
issue  of  universal  peace  or  war. 

But  meanwhile  history  also  suggests  certain  con- 
siderations which  seem  to  show  that  the  democracies, 
in  their  efforts  after  universal  peace,  will  be  working 
in  a  direction,  and  can  learn  from  a  method,  already 
well  known  as  a  direction  and  a  method  of  social  evolu- 
tion. There  are  signs  that  what  the  Germans  would 
call  the  Zeit-Geui  ;  that  what  Mr.  Wells  wants  us  to 
call  the  "  Divine  Idea  " ;  that  what  is,  perhaps,  after 
all,  but  the  practical  commonsense  of  mankind;  has 
already  set  going  a  process  which  has  inevitably  led 
warring  sections  of  the  same  community  into  all  the 
decent  harmonies  of  peaceful  intercourse ;  has  frequently 
produced  sympathy  and  even  unity  between  hostile 
communities ;  and  whose  extension  to  the  international 
sphere  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  secure  results 
not  different  in  kind  from  those  with  which  it  can 
already  be  credited. 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  process,  and  how  does 
.it  operate?  In  one  of  Sir  Gilbert  Parker's  Canadian 
stories  there  is  an  episode  of  two  neighbouring  settle- 
ments, one  of  French  Catholics,  and  the  other  of  Ulster 
Protestants.1  One  can  imagine  their  mutual  relation- 

1  The  World  for  Sale,  by  Gilbert  Parker  (London  :  Wm.  Heinemann). 
"  Lebanon  took  command  of  the  whole  situation,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  two  towns  men  worked  together  under  one 
control  like  brothers.  The  red-shirted  river-driver  from  Manitou 
and  the  lawyer's  clerk  from  Lebanon;  the  Presbyterian  minister  and 
a  Christian  brother  of  the  Catholic  school ;  a  SalvatioruArmy  Captain 
and  a  block-headed  Catholic  shantyman;  the  President  of  the  Order 
of  Good  Templars  and  a  Scotchman  member  of  the  Confraternity  of 
the  Blessed  Sacrament  slaved  together  on  the  hand-engine  to  supple- 
ment the  work  of  the  two  splendid  engines  of  the  Lebanon  fire  brigade," 
etc.  (p.  310).  This  was  "  the  day  when  Lebanon  and  Manitou  were 
reconciled  "  (p.  321). 

279 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

ships.  But  there  came  a  day  when  the  Catholic  chapel 
caught  fire,  and  the  efforts  of  the  faithful  were  unable 
to  extinguish  it  until  they  were  seconded  by  the  arrival 
of  a  well-organized  fire  brigade  from  the  Ulster  town- 
ship; and  so  ended  all  animosities  between  Catholic 
community  and  Protestant  community,  although,  of 
course,  their  individual  members  still  argued  and 
bickered  about  theological  non-essentials.  It  was  found 
that  the  common  interest  which  both  towns  had  in 
well-organized  public  services  transcended  and  reduced 
to  a  proportionate  inferiority  differences  on  points  of 
religious  theory.  The  sympathy  born  of  common  action 
for  a  common  end  melted  the  ancient  animosities.  It 
is  difficult  to  send  a  man  to  eternal  fire  when  he  has 
been  helping  you  to  extinguish  a  secular  conflagration. 
Cardinal  Mercier,  in  the  same  way,  opens  the  gates  of 
Heaven  to  a  freethinker  who  has  died  for  Belgium. 
This  process  by  which  men  have  been  brought  into 
combined  action  to  secure  common  ends  has  so  inter- 
fused them  with  mutual  sympathy  that  their  hostile 
action  to  secure  rival  ends  has  first  lost  its  bitterness, 
then  softened  to  a  friendly  competition,  and  at  last 
become  a  traditional  and  academic  topic  of  discussion 
at  meetings  of  learned  societies  in  their  halls  or  of 
villagers  in  their  taverns.  What  was  it  that  actually 
brought  English  Catholics  and  English  Protestants  into 
mutual  toleration  and  respect?  What  was  it  that 
actually  effected  what  Mr.  Norman  Angell  in  his  "  Mon- 
cure  Conway "  Lecture  called  "  that  great  European 
transformation  of  mind  which  brought  it  about  that 
Catholic  should  not  only  cease  massacring  Protestant 
and  vice  versa,  but  that  he  should  cease  desiring  to  do 
so  "  ?  l  Mr.  Angell  says  that  these  results  were  due  to 
a  few  philosophical  books  which  set  up  an  "  intellectual 
ferment,"  and  gradually  introduced  a  different  way  of 
looking  at  religious  questions.  But  it  is  a  matter  of 
grave  doubt  whether  the  philosophical  books  would 
have  had  much  effect  upon  social  conduct  had  not  the 
ideas  they  inculcated  been  already  put  into  operation 

1  War  and  the  Essential  Realities,  delivered  at  South  Place  Institute 
on  March  18,  1918,  by  Norman  Angell  (London :  Watts  &  Co.  1913), 
p.  20, 

280 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

by  the  practical  necessities  of  social  intercourse.  Man, 
in  the  mass,  is  seldom  converted  to  an  idea  as  a  tenet 
of  reason,  as  a  general  philosophical  principle,  until  it 
dawns  upon  him  that  it  embodies  and  justifies  what 
has  actually  been  his  established  practice.  How  long 
did  the  fires  of  Smithfield  and  the  hangings  on  Tower 
Hill  continue  after  the  patriotic  co-operation  of  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Englishmen  to  ward  off  the  common 
danger  of  the  Spanish  Armada?  Yet  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  was  a  very  hot-bed  of  persecuting  literature ; 
the  great  philosophical  works  on  religious  toleration 
were  the  product  of  a  later  age,  which  inherited  a  con- 
siderable practice  of  religious  tolerance  as  part  of  the 
social  tradition.  The  impulsion  of  national  danger,  the 
accentuation  of  a  common  patriotism,  the  growth  of 
commerce  and  industry,  the  demands  of  social  amenity, 
the  growing  complexity  and  multiplying  interests  of 
civilized  society,  brought  the  professors  of  different 
religious  beliefs  into  sympathetic  communion  with  each 
other  upon  a  thousand  secular  occasions,  with  the 
result  that  the  spheres  of  their  common  interests  assumed 
a  preponderating  importance  over  the  spheres  of  their 
rival  and  hostile  interests.  Toleration  in  England  was 
thus  a  national  practice  before  philosophers  made  it  a 
subject  of  theoretical  discussion.  History  has  a  trick 
of  presenting  us  with  the  fait  accompli  ;  and  when  the 
philosophical  writers  build  up  their  systems  it  is  but 
to  expand  hints  and  advocate  practices  already  em- 
bodied in  actual  experience- — we  find,  like  M.  Jourdain, 
that  we  have  been  "  speaking  prose  for  more  than  forty 
years  without  knowing  it."  *  The  practical  common- 
sense  of  men  living  under  the  constant  pressure  of  social 
demands  dropped  persecution  for  religion  and  for  witch- 
craft, although  the  legislature  was  full  of  persecuting 
enactments  against  both.  Even  at  so  late  a  date  as' 
the  Emancipation  of  the  Catholics  in  England,  a  perse- 
cuting provision  was  introduced  into  the  Emancipating 
Acts  forbidding  testamentary  bequests  to  Roman 
Catholic  corporations;  but  the  practical  sense  of  the 
community  has  recognized  the  sanctity  of  wills  as  a 
more  important  social  interest  than  the  privileges  of 
1  Molidre,  Le  Bourgeois  Oentilhomme,  Act  II.  sc.  vi. 
281 


RACE   AND  NATIONALITY 

Protestant  bodies,  and  the  persecuting  clause  has  never 
been  put  into  operation.  Common  action  to  secure 
common  ends  is  the  finest  solvent  of  bitterness,  the 
greatest  antidote  to  blood-thirstiness  in  disputes  con- 
cerning rival  or  hostile  ends. 

If,  therefore,  the  thrice-armed  nationalities  of  the 
world  are  ever  to  be  brought  to  a  permanent  frame  of 
mind  which  will  involve  the  natural  cessation  of  military 
preparations,  it  seems  likely  that  the  transformation 
will  be  effected  by  methods  and  events  bringing  them 
into  common  action  in  the  sphere  of  their  common 
interests,  and  thus  taking  the  sting  out  of  their  animosi- 
ties in  the  spheres  of  their  rival  or  hostile  interests. 
History,  upon  whose  lessons  wise  men  always  keep  an 
eye,  suggests  that  the  question  of  international  mili- 
tarism may  disappear  as  other  evils  have  disappeared : 
by  the  creation  of  common  spheres  of  practical  interest 
which  will  so  far  diminish  hostility  in  other  matters  as  to 
render  military  armaments  as  obsolete  and  unnecessary 
as  the  faggot  of  the  persecutor  and  the  rapier  of  the 
duellist. 

But  this  is  in  effect  to  suggest  the  apparent  paradox 
that  the  same  forces  which  have  produced  nationality 
will  operate  to  limit  or  mitigate  its  activities ;  nor  can 
the  writer  escape  from  the  logical  conclusion  of  his 
own  argument.  Moreover,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  a  con- 
solation and  a  help  if  it  be  recognized  that  history 
itself  has  enshrined  the  principle  by  which  such  a 
revolution,  or  rather  such  an  evolution,  can  be  accom- 
plished. The  writer  has  already  endeavoured  to  show 
by  detailed  argument  and  illustration  how  this  peace- 
producing  principle  has  operated  through  vast  tracts 
of  historical  progress.  If  he  now  ventures  to  conclude 
his  essay  with  a  few  suggestions  on  this,  point  as  one 
of  current  international  importance,  it  is  not  with  the 
fantastic  hope  of  providing  a  ready-made  remedy  for 
the  difficulties  that  lie  ahead,  but  merely  with  the 
desire  to  place  the  difficulties  in  their  proper  proportions 
and  to  suggest  deliberate  and  conservative  caution  in 
dealing  with  them. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  at  the  very  outset  of 
any  attempt  to  apply  the  machinery  of  nationality  to 

282 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  establishment  of  peace  lies  the  value  of  nationality 
itself  and  its  relationship  to  the  military  armaments 
that  are  designed  to  protect  it.  And,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  value  of  nationality  is  more  keenly  recognized  to-day 
than  at  any  period  of  history.  Since  Roman  Catholic 
statesmen  surrendered  the  magnificent  conception  of  a 
political  "  State  of  God  "  to  the  demands  of  national 
particularism,  and  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  became 
a  merely  pedantic  and  traditional  title  for  a  group  of 
separate  States  with  separate  and  even  hostile  interests, 
the  political  development  of  Europe  has  gone  in  the 
direction  of  emphasizing  national  differences,  and  of 
removing  every  day  still  further  away  from  practical 
realization  the  poetical  dream  of  the  federation  of 
Europe,  not  to  speak  of  a  "  federation  of  the  World." 
The  "  national  idea  "  has  been  an  infinitely  more  potent 
force  in  European  politics  than  the  principle  of  brother- 
hood which  was  partly  the  inspiration  and  partfy  the 
outcome  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  power  of  the 
former  was  based  upon  a  realization  of  actual  facts  and 
pressing  practical  necessities ;  while  the  latter  represented 
an  idealism  which-  took  no  account  of  the  fitness  or 
unfitness  of  the  existing  material  with  which,  if  at  all, 
its  conceptions  were  to  be  realized.  To  discuss  the 
question  whether  humanity  would  be  better  off  had 
nationality  been  eliminated  as  a  factor  in  its  develop- 
ment is  as  idle  as  the  schoolboy  exercise  which  played 
with  the  inquiry  whether  the  destruction  of  Rome  by 
Carthage  would  have,  or  would  have  not,  produced 
more  beneficent  results  than  the  destruction  of  Carthage 
by  Rome.  The  fact  is  that  Rome  still  influences  the 
daily  life  of  every  citizen  in  Europe ;  and  the  fact  is  that 
Europe  to-day  is  a  group  of  separate  and  varyingly 
hostile  nationalities  whose  common  interests  are  con- 
ceived as  trifling  compared  with  their  competing  and 
opposing  interests;  and  that  where  the  existence  of 
common  interests  is  most  clearly  recognized  there  the 
sentiment  of  nationality  is  most  solid  and  complete. 

Now,  the  armies  and  navies  of  Europe  are  at  once  the 
symbol  and  the  defence  of  these  competing  and  opposing 
interests,  and  it  is  idle  to  expect  any  voluntary  diminu- 
tion of  such  means  of  protecting  national  interests  until 

283 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

it  can  be  demonstrated,  beyond  the  faintest  possibility 
of  doubt  or  suspicion,  that  national  interests  will  be  as 
safe  without  them  as  with  them.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  national  interests  and  national  sentiment  as 
they  exist  to-day  are,  in  each  separate  case,  the  current 
form  assumed  by  a  particular  group  of  tendencies  which 
are  not  the  result  either  of  racial  divisions  or  of  the 
selfish  strivings  of  the  individual  subjects  or  citizens 
at  present  living  within  the  sphere  of  their  operation. 
They  represent,  rather,  the  so  far  final  result  of  streams 
of  influence  which,  although  marked  with  peculiarities 
due  to  the  transmission  of  local  characteristics  from 
generation  to  generation,  have  been  more  or  less  freely 
open  to  a  flood  of  external  modifications ;  so  that  national 
interests,  when  seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  their 
historical  development,  are  not  necessarily  organized 
manifestations  of  a  Spartan  exclusiveness,  but  separate 
groups  of  international  experiences  coloured  by  .particu- 
larist  and  national  sentiment.  This  national  sentiment, 
when  based  upon  ignorance  or  misguided  by  calculating 
politicians,  may  claim  that  the  particular  form  of  civiliza- 
tion to  which  a  nation  has  attained  shall  be  the  type 
and  exemplar  of  all  other  nationalities,  which  are  to 
be  crushed  in  order  to  make  way  for  its  own  "  higher  " 
civilization.  But  this  is  not  a  point  of  view  ostensibly 
assumed  by  any  of  the  great  nations  in  face  of  the 
other  great  nations,  except  in  the  case  of  Germany, 
in  whom  it  is  an  aberration  from  the  normal  civilized 
development  of  nationality.  All  that  each  of  them 
normally  demands  is  its  "  place  in  the  sun  " ;  the  right 
and  the  opportunity  to  maintain  its  own  traditional 
culture  and  economic  fabric  intact — to  preserve,  in  a 
word,  its  individuality  as  a  nation.  Even  a  modified 
national  ambition  of  this  kind  is  sufficient  to  justify 
any  sacrifice  to  maintain  the  national  tradition  immune 
from  violent  intrusion.  No  nation  can  be  expected  to 
regard  its  culture,  its  civilization,  its  economic  fabric, 
as  of  no  more  value  to  itself  than  any  other  culture, 
or  civilization,  or  economic  fabric,  or  of  no  value  to  the 
world  at  all.  For  even  nationality  itself,  being  largely 
nourished  and  moulded  by  international  influences,  can 
plead  its  international  value  for  its  justification.  Any 

284 


direct  suggestion,  therefore,  that  a  nation  should  reduce 
the  ramparts  that,  as  things  are,  protect  its  national 
existence  and  international  usefulness,  stirs  into  sus- 
picious activity  a  complicated  mass  of  emotions  and 
sentiments,  which,  unreasonable  as  these  may  be  in 
their  immediate  origin  and  present  manifestation,  are 
soon  protected  and  fortified  by  many  excellent  reasons 
drawn  from  the  study  of  history  or  based  upon  practical 
experience.  These  reasons  corroborate  the  feelings  and 
accentuate  the  imaginations' which  centre  in  the  safety 
of  the  national  ideal,  which  is  regarded  both  by  the 
reason  and  by  the  emotions  as  demanding  every  possible 
sacrifice  to  ensure  its  preservation.  Hence  one  serious 
difficulty  which  faces  Pacifists  in  their  proposals  for  the 
reduction  of  armaments.  Given  the  value  of  nation- 
ality— admitted,  if  only  as  a  sentimental  fallacy,  by 
the  greatest  of  all  Pacifists,  Mr.  Norman  Angell — the 
reduction  -of  armaments  is  looked  upon  as  a  wilful 
weakening  of  the  defensive  machinery  upon  whose 
strength  nationality  is  at  present  believed  to  depend.1 
This  consideration,  if  the  writer  may  venture  to  say 
so,  lessens  the  cogency  of  that  appeal  to  reason  which 
Mr.  Angell  directs  against  the  militarism  of  the  great 
European  nationalities.  Mr.  Angell  is  of  opinion  that 
the  appeal  of  rationalism  in  the  domain  of  international 
policy  has  to  meet  only  what  he  calls  "  the  immense 
strength  of  the  intuitive  unreasoned  impulses  we  asso- 
ciate with  patriotism."  2  But  the  matter  is  •  not  so 
simple.  The  "  patriot  "  may  make  out  as  "  reasonable  " 
a  case  for  his  nationalism  as  Mr.  Angell  does  for  inter- 
nationalism. Reason,  unfortunately,  often  plays  only 
a  subsidiary  part  in  sublunary  affairs;  she  follows  in 
the  train  of  the  passions  and  is  called  into  their  counsels 
to  explain,  justify  and  enforce  their  decisions.  The 
emotion  of  patriotic  suspicion  evoked  by  suggestions 
for  the  reduction  of  armaments  is  promptly  backed  up 
by  a  thousand  arguments  based  upon  the  value  of  the 
particular  national  tradition  affected ;  and  this  reasoned 
conception  of  the  importance  of  nationality  can  be 
made  the  justification  of  more  extensive  military  pre- 
parations than  even  "  intuitive  "  patriotism  has  effected. 
1  International  Polity,  p.  64.  «  Ibid.,  pp.  70  sqq. 

285 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

It  is  quite  as  "  reasonable  "  to  regard  the  militarism  of 
Europe  as  an  instrument  for  the  defence  of  existing 
nationalities  as  it  is  to  regard  it  as  an  instrument  for 
their  destruction.  The  appeal  is  not  directed  by  reason 
to  sentiment  alone,  but  by  reason  to  sentiment  backed 
up  by  reasons  as  cogent  as  any  that  are  to  be  found 
on  the  other  side. 

It  is  significant  to  note  that  Mr.  Norman  Angell,  in 
that  special  branch  of  international  criticism  of  which  he 
is  the  recognized  master,  the  sphere  of  economics, 
partially  adopts  the  view  that  practical  co-operation 
between  nationalities  is  the  operative  principle  of  inter- 
national unity.  But  he  does  not  thereby  add  strength, 
but  rather  the  reverse,  to  any  of  his  arguments  against 
the  existence  of  nationality  and  its  defence  by  military 
armaments.  "  It  is,"  says  he,  "  an  integral  part  of 
the  economic  case  against  war  that  the  nation  is  not  the 
community  in  the  economic  sense  if  there  exist  inter- 
national economic  relations  at  all;  that  it  is  integrally 
a  part  of  the  whole  community  of  organized  society; 
that  to  smite  the  interest  of  the  whole  is  to  smite  itself ; 
that,  economically,  we  are  part  of  the  general  com- 
munity to  the  extent  of  the  nation's  economic  relation 
with  other  nations." *  But  Mr.  Angell  extends  his 
definition  of  economics  to  include  all  those  higher 
intellectual  and  spiritual  interests  which  depend  upon 
well-ordered  material  arrangements  :  "  affection,  love, 
family  life,  motherhood,  fatherhood,  the  happiness  of 
children,  rest  after  fatigue,  achievement  after  effort — 
you  can  prolong  the  list  indefinitely.  And  these  things 
are  bound  up  with,  and  depend  upon,  more  material 
things — health,  which  means  food  and  clothing  and 
cleanliness ;  leisure  and  serenity,  which  mean  an  ordered  , 
life;  efficiency,  the  capacity  to  live  in  society  and  to 
do  one's  work  in  the  world — and  you  come  back  to 
economics,  to  sociology,  to  the  science  of  human  society. 
They  are  all  interdependent  parts  of  one  great  whole, 
and  you  cannot  separate  them."  2  But  the  difficulty  is, 
that  however  closely  these  things  may  be  united  in  the 
world  of  thought,  they  are  separated  in  life  itself.  All 
national  qualities  are  human  qualities ;  a  human  quality 
1  International  Polity,  p.  41.  *  Ibid.,  p.  40. 

286 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

becomes  a  distinctively  national  quality  when  its  expres- 
sion is  regulated  by  the  forces  which  operate  upon  a 
group  of  people  living  in  the  same  social  and  political 
environment.  And  all  human  qualities  exhibited  by 
people  under  social  restraints  are  governed  in  their 
manifestation  by  educational  and  other  traditions,  and 
by  social  laws  and  customs;  so  tKat  fatherhood  and 
motherhood,  affection,  love,  family  life,  and  all  the  rest 
of  Mr.  Angell's  "  ultimate  realities "  are  manifested 
quite  differently  in  different  communities,  according  to 
the  tradition  which  has  been  gradually  forming  through 
generations  of  continuous  national  existence.  The 
French  have  quite  a  different  ideal  of  family  life  from 
the  English;  and  an  Italian's  manifestation  of  his 
affection  for  his  children  has  seemed  supremely  ridiculous 
to  the  Englishman  with  his  tradition  of  greater  self- 
repression  in  such  a  matter.  To  assert  that  the  "  ulti- 
mate realities  "  of  life  are  the  same  in  all  nations  is  not 
to  destroy  any  argument  for  nationality.  The  national 
tradition  which  guides  and  colours  the  form  which 
these  "  realities  "  take  is  the  separating  factor;  and  it 
is  reasonable  in  the  highest  degree  that  a  nation  should 
be  ready  to  fight  to  preserve  the  right  to  show  its  love 
for  its  children  in  its  own  way. 

National  armaments  are  primarily  instruments  for 
the  defence  of  the  nation's  right  to  develop  the  "  ultimate 
realities,"  the  general  human  instincts,  upon  its  own 
lines.  Mr.  Angell  is  a  cogent  assertor  of  the  right  of  a 
nation  to  defend  itself  against  attack.  War  is  then 
justifiable.  But  to  admit  a  nation's  right  to  defend  its 
own  .particular  form  of  social,  political  and  economic 
structure  is  to  admit  that  that  form  has  a  distinctive 
value ;  and  to  admit  that  it  has  a  distinctive  value  is  to 
annihilate  the  strength  of  the  argumentative  appeal  to 
"  ultimate  realities  "  as  forming  the  basis  of  the  life  of 
all  nations  alike.  It  is  not  the  mere  fact  of  sharing  in 
the  common  human  attributes  which  combines  people 
into  organized  associations  for  mutual  assistance  and 
a  common  social  life,  but  the  active  participation  in 
operations  carried  out  to  secure  some  common  end. 
It  is  not  the  possession  of  such  qualities,  but  their  use 
in  co-operation,  which  develops  a  bond  of  sympathetic 

287 


association  in  previously  hostile  communities.  The 
German  Empire  and  the  British  Empire  are,  in  their 
own  separate  national  histories,  living  examples  of  the 
truth  of  this  view  in  the  sphere  of  national  life;  the 
social,  political  and  industrial  records  of  both  peoples 
are  replete  with  instances  of  the  operation  of  this 
reconciling  agency.  If  .we  can,  in  spite  of  Lord  Haldane, 
deduce  from  history  any  objective  truth  at  all,  it  is  a 
truth  which  gives  a  large  and  generous  hope  that  after 
many  trials  and  failures,  after,  perhaps,  many  centuries 
of  military  triumphs  and  defeats,  the  same  principle 
will  be  found  in  effective  occupation  of  the  sphere  of 
international  policy. 

Already  even  before  the  war  one  could  see  distinct 
signs  of  constant  and  deliberate  action  in  this  direction, 
when  that  famous  international  machine,  the  "  Concert 
of  Europe,"  was  likened  by  Sir  William  Ramsay  to 
Dante's  conception  of  a  spiritual  monarchy.  As  the 
Westminster  Gazette  said  at  the  time,  the  action  of  the 
Concert  during  the  Balkan  War  proved  "  that  nations 
are  capable  of  being  appealed  to  on  grounds  that  are 
international  as  well  as  on  those  that  are  purely  national. 
The  idea  of  a  common  European  interest,  as  well  as  a 
British,  a  German,  an  Austrian,  or  a  Russian  interest, 
has  been  clearly  present  to  all  the  Governments."  * 
The  work  of  the  Concert  was  thus  an  example  of  that 
process  of  exhibiting  nations  in  active  co-operation 
towards  a  common  end,  to  a  fuller  development  of 
which  many  hopes  may  still  be  legitimately  directed 
for  the  attainment  "of  a  safe  and  permanent  condition  of 
international  peace  and  goodwill. 

The  conception  of  the  "  Federation  of  Europe,"  or  of 
"  European  Unity "  advocated  by  some  of  the  most 
experienced  international  publicists  of  the  day  was  a 
logical,  but  probably,  even  under  pre-War  conditions, 
remote  extension  of  the  work  of  the  Concert;  and 
although  the  controversies  which  centred  about  these 
projects  in  the  days  immediately  preceding  the  war 
now  suggest  "  the  sound  of  bells  from  a  city  sunk 
beneath  the  sea,"  to  use  Mommsen's  fine  image 
applied  to  the  history  of  ancient  Rome,  it  may 
1  Westminster  Gazette,  May  9,  1913. 
288 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

nevertheless  be  useful  to  recall  the  reasons  which 
were  advanced  in  support  of  the  various  schemes 
canvassed  in  that  now  distant  period.  The  main 
currents  of  opinion  were  two  :  one  chiefly  represented  by 
Sir  Max  Waechter,  the  founder  of  the  "  European  Unity 
League  " ;  the  other  by  Professor  Lujo  Brentano,  the 
famous  international  jurist  of  Munich.  The  former 
contended  that  the  essential  condition  for  the  inaugura- 
tion of  a  system  of  European  Federation  was  the  forma- 
tion, in  the  different  nationalities,  of  a  public  opinion 
hostile  to  militarism  and  favourable  to  the  action  of 
those  already  enlightened  statesmen  and  rulers  who, 
it  was  claimed,  were  only  too  anxious  to  enter  into 
harmonious  relationships  with  each  other  to  reduce 
military  armaments  within  reasonable  limits.  The 
latter  admitted  the  desirability  and  the  possibility  of 
federation,  but  looked  to  securing  the  end  by  means  of 
the  "  co-operation  of  the  progressive  elements  of  all 
European  countries  in  matters  concerning  their  inner 
political  constitution  and  inner  political  life."  x  To  the 
first  course  it  may  be  objected  that  so  long  as  the 
opposing  interests  of  nations  loom  larger  in  the  public 
eye  than  their  common  interests,  aU  merely  verbal 
arguments,  however  cogent  and  logical,  which  are 
directed  against  armaments  as  a  means  of  advancing 
or  protecting  the  opposing  interests,  will  be  nullified  by 
that  suspicion  which  is  corroborated  by  counter-argu- 
ments based  upon  the  value  of  nationality,  and  the 
comparative  insignificance  of  any  sacrifice  necessary 
to  make  its  existence  secure.  As  an  argument  against 
the  alternative  view  it  was  urged  that  it  is  an  un- 
warrantable and  dangerous  interference  with  national 
concerns — an  interference  which  would  have  the  conse- 
quence that  "  the  rulers  of  the  autocratically  organized 
states  would  persecute  those  who  wouM  venture  to 
bring  about  the  unity  of  Europe  by  an  agitation  tending 

1  England,  Germany,  and  the  Peace  of  Europe,  by  Sir  Max  Waechter, 
D.L.,  J.P.  (London :  Richard  Clay  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  1913).— Sir  Max 
Waechter  and  European  Unity — Views  of  Sovereigns  (The  European 
Unity  League,  March  1914).  See  also  article  by  Vernon  Lee  with 
letter  from  Prof.  Brentano  in  the  Westminster  Gazette,  Feb.  18,  1914, 
and  reply  by  Sir ,  M.[Waechter,  Feb.  20,  1914. 
U  289 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

towards  an  international  revolution,"  with  serious 
consequences  to  the  national  life  of  the  separate  com- 
munities. Nor  is  this  apprehension  groundless  in  view 
of  the  progress  of  Bolshevism  in  Russia,  and  its  aspira- 
tions towards  the  destruction  of  nationality  in  other 
countries. 

The  difficulties  and  dangers  thus  existing  in  the  way 
of  applying  either  of  these  methods  do  not,  however, 
close  the  door  to  the  solution  already  suggested  in  these 
pages;  the  method,  namely,  of,  spreading  a  public 
opinion  which  would  encourage  the  rulers  and  states- 
men of  the  nations  to  enter,  on  all  practicable  occasions, 
into  actual  co-operation  towards  securing  ends  admitted 
to  be  the  common  interests  of  all  the  nations  alike. 
The  practical  exhibition  of  harmonious  co-operation 
towards  common  ends  would  be  an  object  lesson  in 
international  solidarity  more  effective  than  a  thousand 
verbal  arguments.  As  Lord  Robert  Cecil  said  in 
his  "  League  of  Nations "  speech  at  Versailles  on 
February  14,  1919  :  "  Certain  it  is  that  if  we  can 
once  get  the  nations  of  the  world  into  the  habit  of 
co-operating  with  one  another,  you  will  have  struck  a 
great  blow  at  the  source  and  origin  of  all,  or  almost  all, 
the  world  wars  which  have  defaced  the  history  of  the 
world."  Such  an  example  of  the  "  habit  of  co-opera- 
tion "  was  given  just  before  the  war  by  the  International 
Conference  on  Safety  of  Life  at  Sea,  in  which  repre- 
sentatives not  only  of  the  European  States  and  British 
Colonies,  but  also  of  Japan  and  the  United  States, 
came  to  an  agreement  relative  to  the  arrangements  to 
be  adopted  by  all  the  countries  alike,  not  only  for  the 
safety  of  their  own  people,  but  the  people  of  all  alike. 
These  arrangements  are  far-reaching  and  complicated, 
involving  such  matters  of  international  delicacy  as  the 
acceptance  by  all  the  States  of  certificates  of  compliance 
with  the  requirements  of  the  proposed  Convention 
issued  by  any  one  of  them,  and  the  imposition  by  each 
of  the  Governments  of  penalties  in  case  of  neglect  to 
carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  Convention.  Even  if 
the  Convention  had  not  been  ratified  by  the  Governments 
concerned,  the  mere  fact  of  the  conjoint  deliberations 
of  so  many  nationalities  in  friendly  pursuit  of  a  common 

290 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

aim  would,  as  Lord  Mersey  said  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Conference,  "  contribute  greatly  to  the  increase  of 
mutual  respect  and  confidence  among  the  nations,  and 
thereby  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  world  at 
large."  l  Co-operation  towards  common  ends  has 
always  hitherto  tended  to  secure  sympathetic  relation- 
ships between  men  and  bodies  of  men  in  those  matters 
in  which  their  ends  have  been  diverse  or  even  hostile ; 
and  the  application  to  the  sphere  of  international 
activity  of  a  principle  which  has  been  so  successful  in 
establishing  and  fostering  the  amenities  of  social  and 
national  life  suggests  happy  hopes  for  the  eventual 
creation  of  that  atmosphere  of  mutual  confidence, 
sympathy  and  esteem  which  must  be  the  cause,  and  not 
the  result,  of  the  dismantling  of  the  naval  and  military 
bulwarks  of  nationality. 

Those  whose  imagination  is  captivated  by  the  grandiose 
conception  of  a  League  of  Nations  to  be  accepted  offhand 
as  an  instantaneous  panacea  by  a  world  sick  with  the 
shock  of  war  will  regard  as  meticulous,  insignificant  and 
mean  these  suggestions  based  upon  the  continued 
development  of  pacific  activities  already  in  operation 
before  the  occurrence  of  the  catastrophe.  But  it  would 
be  at  the  sacrifice  of  all  sense  of  historical  proportion 
were  we  to  neglect  the  results  of  'actual  experience 
because  they  fall  short  of  the  anticipated  fruition  of 
a  hitherto  unrealized  ideal.  And,  indeed,  if  we  regard 
the  problem  less  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who 
see  in  it  the  promise  of  an  immediate  Millennium  than 
from  a  contemplation  of  the  practical  work  which  has 
been  done  at  Versailles  in  the  creation  of  machinery  to 
give  concrete  shape  to  the  conception,  we  see  that  the 
new  proposals  are  a  natural  extension  of  sound  and 
established  principles  of  national  evolution  into  the 
international  sphere.  They  recognize  frankly  and  fully 
that  the  only  hope  of  securing  peace  and  unity  among 
the  nations  is  to  find  some  means  for  co-ordinating  their 
common  interests,  and  for  reducing  below  the  danger- 
point  their  competing  and  hostile  interests,  and  to 
adapt  the  machinery  of  nationality  to  an  international 
form  for  the  expression  of  the  conception  of  international 
1  Report  in  the  Westminster  Gazette,  January  21,  1914. 
291 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

unity.  There  is  nothing  revolutionary  or  impossibly 
idealistic,  either  in  the  conception  of  a  League  of  Nations 
or  in  the  construction  of  machinery  for  its  practical 
application.  Both  are  in  harmony  with  settled  historical 
principles.  Nor  can  it  be  regarded  as  rash  or  unstates- 
manlike  to  take  advantage  of  the  international  atmo- 
sphere prevailing  after  the  war — an  atmosphere  in  which 
Peace  is  naturally  envisaged  as  the  greatest  of  all  the 
common  interests  of  humanity — in  order  to  secure  for 
the  conception  support  which  would  have  failed  a  few 
years  ago,  and  might  possibly  fail  again  a  few  years 
hence.  The  dramatic  picture  presented  by  the  official 
representatives  of  many  nations  acting  together  in  the 
elaboration  of  machinery  for  realizing  the  ideal  of 
universal  peace,  for  international  control  of  national 
labour  legislation,  for  the  international  administration 
of  certain  conquered  territories,  accentuates  the  pacific 
state  of  mind  which  has  made  possible  the  inauguration 
of  so  august  and  auspicious  a  participation  in  work 
towards  a  common  end. 

But,  ii*  spite  of  the  soundness  of  the  general  conception 
of  a  League  of  Nations  and  of  the  measures  recently 
taken  to  prepare  for  its  application  to  living  issues,  a 
detached  and  philosophic  study  of  history  suggests 
many  warnings  against  forcing  the  conception  upon  an 
international  public  opinion  which  is  not  yet  ripe  for 
its  acceptance.  Although  it  is  true  that  legislative 
changes  in  national  life  have  been  at  times  effected  by  the 
energetic  persistence  of  minorities,  such  changes  have 
succeeded  or  failed  according  to  the  measure  in  which 
they  were  ratified  or  neglected  by  the  general  sense  of 
the  community ;  and  many  beneficial  projects  have  been 
postponed,  or  destroyed  outright,  by  the  too  rash  zeal 
of  their  advocates.  The  conception  of  a  League  of 
Nations  is  so  fraught  with  issues  of  good  and  ill  for  the 
world  at  large  that  it  is  especially  incumbent  upon  its 
advocates  to  secure  it  against  the  dangers  of  a  rash 
and  unpractical  idealism  by  making  it  an  essential 
condition  of  their  support  that  the  public  opinion  of 
the  world  shall  be  ripe  for  its  realization. 

But  is  the  world  ripe  for  its  realization  now?  Is 
the  public  opinion  of  the  various  nationalities  so 

292 


RACE  AND   NATIONALITY 

devotedly  and  permanently  attached  to  the  notion  of 
universal  peace  as  to  be  ready  to  accept  that  diminu- 
tion of  their  national  claims  which  must  necessarily 
accompany  the  acceptance  of  a  predominating  inter- 
national duty  ?  Is  not  the  position  somewhat  like  that 
existing  in  face  of  the  earlier  proposals  for  "  European 
Federation  "  ?  Is  it  not  probable  that  a  few  statesmen, 
"  enlightened  "  if  you  will,  are  really  forcing  the  pace 
upon  a  public  opinion  whose  attitude  suggests  an  air 
of  anxious  curiosity  rather  than  of  enthusiastic  devotion 
or  even  willing  acquiescence?  Is  there  not  a  shrewd 
suspicion  that  the  influence  of  President  Wilson's  com- 
manding personality  has  dominated  the  scruples  of 
some  other  statesmen  who  are  not  yet  fully  favourable 
to  the  project,  or  who  are  not  conscious  of  the  general 
support  of  the  people  they  have  been  chosen  to  repre- 
sent? Experienced  critics  of  political  movements  in 
Europe  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  suggest 
that  the  machinery  elaborated  at  Versailles  will  collapse 
on  the  first  practical  test  unless  its  activities  are  inspired 
by  the  goodwill  of  the  peoples  as  well  as  by  the  pre- 
dilections of  their  rulers.  Even  those  quarters  most 
closely  associated  with  the  advocacy  of  a  League  of 
Nations,  and  most  enthusiastic  at  even  the  provisional 
erection  of  machinery  for  effecting  its  purposes,  are  not 
entirely  free  from  alarm  at  this  possibility.  The  West- 
minster Gazette  (Feb.  15,  1919)  says :  "  Whether  the 
League's  power  of  enforcing  the  peaceful  settlement  of 
disputes  when  they  arise  will  be  effective  or  not  may 
depend  for  years  to  come  on  whether  it  has  succeeded 
in  restraining  its  members  from  accumulating  the  power 
which  would  enable  them  to  defy  its  authority  " ;  an 
apprehension  which,  while  it  exists,  is  utterly  destruc- 
tive of  that  mutual  trust  and  confidence  which  form 
the  idealistic  basis  of  the  very  conception  of  a  League 
of  Nations,  and  an  apprehension  which  would  be 
groundless  if  the  public  opinion  of  the  different  nations 
were  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  realization  of  the 
conception.  The  Daily  News  of  the  same  date  expresses 
the  view  that  "  it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  League  of 
Nations  that  it  should  be  a  League  of  peoples  and  not 
of  Governments,  and  it  can  never  obtain  the  command- 

293 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

ing  authority  essential  to  it  unless  both  the  principles 
on  which  it  rests  and  the  concrete  interpretation  of 
those  principles  in  a  written  constitution  have  obtained 
the  deliberate  and  intelligent  endorsement  of  the  peoples 
of  the  world."  And  Mr.  Gardiner  drives  the  point  home 
in  his  usual  incisive  style  :  "  We  must  not  be  deceived 
by  the  adoption  by  the  Peace  Conference  of  the  scheme 
of  the  League  of  Nations.  It  is  a  great  achievement, 
but  it  is  only  an  aspiration  :  written  down  on  paper, 
it  is  true,  signed  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  Powers, 
but  still  only  a  scrap  of  paper.  It  is  useless  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  its  unanimous  endorsement  has  been 
wrung  out  of  a  good  deal  of  indifference  and  even  hos- 
tility "  (Daily  News,  Feb.  21,  1919;  article,  "The 
Commonwealth,"  by  A.  G.  G.).  These  apprehensions 
and  cautions  assuredly  spring  from  the  root  of  the 
matter.  The  imposition  of  machinery  upon  peoples 
unwilling,  or  even  only  unready,  to  make  it  an  expres- 
sion of  their  national  purposes  will  not  bring  a  true 
League  of  Nations  nearer,  but  will  postpone  its  realiza- 
tion indefinitely.  Even  the  general  and  willing  consent 
of  the  people,  given  at  a  particular  moment,  would  not 
establish  the  League  as  a  permanent  and  active  institu- 
tion unless  the  frame  of  mind  which  existed  at  that 
moment  were  perpetuated  by  a  constant  propaganda 
from  responsible  and  powerful  sources.  Until  the  state 
of  mind  of  which  the  League  is  an  outcome  were  per- 
manently and  inextricably  interwoven  with  the  national 
character  as  well  as  the  national  administration,  there 
would  always  be  a  danger  that  some  sudden  rush  of 
emotion  would  carry  the  nation  off  its  feet  and  plunge 
it  once  more  into  the  old  military  adventures.  We  do 
not  know  how  it  would  be  in  the  case  of  a  small  and 
unpatriotic  community,  but  if  the  public  opinion  of  a 
great  Imperial  nation,  say  the  British  Empire,  felt  that 
its  just  interests,  or  even  its  historic  pride,  were  hurt 
by  the  demands  of  a  League  of  Nations,  one  cannot 
imagine  it  acquiescing  until  it  had  tested  once  again 
the  arbitrament  of  war.  We  have  not  found  it  so  easy 
a  task  to  deal  with  a  hostile  public  opinion  in  Ireland 
that  we  can  think  the  embattled  world  would  have  an 
easy  task  to  deal  with  us;  not  to  consider  the  shatter- 

294 


RACE   AND   NATIONALITY 

ing  effect  it  might  have  upon  the  structure  of  the 
League  if  one  of  its  principal  members  were  to  defy  it. 
The  horrors  of  war  remain  a  very  short  time  in  the 
national  memory ;  but  the  craving  for  revenge  is  almost 
ineradicable,  the  pride  of  victory  almost  unendurable. 
It  is  a  commonplace  of  journalistic  observation  in 
Germany  that  the  people  claim  that  their  armies  have 
not  been  defeated  in  the  field;  that  more  careful 
economic  preparation  to  back  military  endeavour  might 
in  the  next  war  secure  results  unattained  in  the  last. 
On  the  morrow  of  the  publication  of  the  "  Magna 
Carta  of  the  Nations,"  the  "  Twenty-six  Articles  "  of 
the  Versailles  "  Covenant,"  certain  not  unrepresentative 
organs  of  French  opinion  were  asserting  that  their 
country  could  sacrifice  none  of  its  present  means  of 
defence  to  the  idealism  expressed  in  the  "  Constitution  " 
of  the  League.  And  in  Great  Britain  herself  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  there  is  a  widely  prevalent  and  deeply 
felt  suspicion  that  some  people's  advocacy  of  the  League 
is  not  uninspired  by  a  desire  to  see  her  Navy  reduced 
to  less  dominating  proportions.  It  may  be  pessimism, 
but  it  is  not  cynicism,  which  draws  from  history  the 
suggestion  that  the  atmosphere  following  on  the  war 
is  but  superficially  and  temporarily  favourable  to  the 
immediate  inauguration  of  a  League  of  Nations,  and 
that  the  actual  and  essential  predominance  of  national 
interests  over  internationalism  will  overwhelm  all 
pacifism  which  hopes  to  erect  itself  merely  upon  a 
memory  of  the  horrors  of  the  past  war  or  an  imagina- 
tive anticipation  of  the  greater  horrors  of  an  Armageddon 
still  to  come.  Let  our  public  rhetoricians  exhibit  all 
the  arts  of  cultured  or  popular  eloquence  in  enhancing 
the  charm  of  the  great  ideal  conception ;  let  our  brilliant 
Liberal  journalists  devote  to  it  all  their  power  and 
influence ;  let  our  diplomatists  confer  in  the  elaboration 
of  machinery  to  impose  the  ideal  upon  the  real;  let 
every  possible  channel  of  public  opinion  be  flooded  with 
advocacy  of  a  League  of  Nations  for  the  establishment 
of  universal  international  concord :  they  will  make  the 
notion  familiar ;  they  will  educate  public  opinion  in  the 
direction  of  recognizing  peace  as  the  greatest  interest 
of  humanity  at  large;  but  the  course  of  our  previous 

295 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

history  suggests  the  probability  that  for  some  time  to 
come  we  shall  follow  the  old  paths  and  look,  for  the 
preservation  of  peace,  to  the  empirical  methods  of  the 
last  few  centuries,  to  an  elastic  and  variable  "  Concert  of 
Europe,"  to  the  "  Balance  of  Power,"  and  other  merely 
temporary  alliances,  such  as  depend  upon  fluctuating 
and  uncertain  causes,  and  are  liable  to  be  overthrown 
by  circumstances,  domestic  as  well  as  international, 
which  the  most  careful  prevision  has  not  anticipated. 

But  history,  if  it  inculcates  caution  in  entering  upon 
new  ways  of  apparent  peace,  does  not  therefore  con- 
demn the  world  to  eternal  war.  The  opposite  is, 
indeed,  the  case.  It  demonstrates  with  a  certainty 
almost  scientific  that  if  the  separate  communities 
encourage,  on  every  possible  occasion,  co-operation 
with  each  other  in  spheres  where  their  interests  har- 
monize; if  they  consciously  train  themselves  towards 
the  formation  of  a  public  opinion  which  will  bring 
pressure  upon  their  Governments  to  seek  for  oppor- 
tunities of  joint  international  activity  in  the  spheres 
of  their  common  interests;  if  our  systems  of  education 
inculcate  a  patriotism  inspired  by  sufficient  intelligence 
to  recognize?  that  ours  is  not  the  only  national  tradition 
of  value  to  the  world  and  to  ourselves,  and  that  patriot- 
ism, or  devotion  to  the  national  culture  and  its  home, 
is  a  virtue  wherever  exhibited;  ,nay,  even  if  successive 
generations  of  our  youth  are  so  trained  as  to  have 
no  national  interest  and  to  feel  no  national  pride  in 
anything  condemned  by  a  Universal  League;  if  we  use 
our  potent  machinery  of  international  communion  with 
that  spirit  of  courteous  toleration  for  the  opposite  view 
which  is  the  general  mark  of  our  national  institutions ; 
we  shall  find  in  due  course — without  haste,  but  without 
rest — that  the  process  which  has  produced  peace  within 
our  borders  will  produce  peace  throughout  the  world; 
and  all  the  elaborately  destructive  machinery  of  mili- 
tarism will  be  dropped  at  last  without  an  effort  on  the 
great  humanitarian  scrap-heap  of  history's  overthrown 
idols,  to  be  joined  there  at  last  by  the  machinery  of 
pacifism,  too,  since  only  communities  disposed  to  war 
need  apparatus  to  safeguard  peace. 

Such,  then,  are  the  conclusions  reached  by  the  writer 

296 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

in  his  examination  of  the  general  progress  of  our  national 
development,  and  of  the  special  questions  springing  out 
of  the  relationship  of  the  principle  of  nationality  to 
Peace  and  War.  As  harmony  has  been  secured  in  the 
national  sphere  so  it  is  likely  -to  be  secured  in  the 
international  sphere  by  the  free  play  of  the  civilizing 
power  of  co-operation  in  the  practical  work  of  the 
.world.  No  student  of  history  would  wish  to  dogmatize 
about  the  results  of  any  national  or  international  policy  : 
the  most  accidental  occurrences  have  been  fraught  with 
finer  and  more  beneficent  issues  than  the  most  rational 
calculation  would  have  secured.  And  at  the  present 
time,  when  international  relationships  are  more  com- 
plicated and  intertwined,  more  delicately  balanced  and 
more  subtly  motived  than  ever  before,  it  would  be  a 
speculation  rash  even  beyond  the  reach  of  a  metaphysical 
philosopher  to  prognosticate  the  effect  of  an  alteration 
in  one  set  of  relationships  upon  all  the  others  and  upon 
the  future  history  of  civilization.  Still,  however,  the 
nations  are  not  only  richer  in  political  experience,  but 
the  masses  of  the  people  are  better  educated  to  an 
appreciation  of  political  issues  than  ever  before,  and 
with  a  more  careful  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  history 
it  is  probable  that  political  action  will  not  only  be 
originated  with  greater  intelligence  than  ever  before, 
but  that  its  results  will  also  be  watched  and  guided 
with  greater  intelligence.  If,  therefore,  the  nations 
could  be  induced  more  frequently  to  enter  into  joint 
action  to  advance  those  larger  human  ends  in  which 
they  have  a  common  interest  with  the  object  of  diminish- 
ing or  alleviating  the  animosity  of  their  hostile  interests, 
it  is  probable  that  public  opinion,  fortified  by  such 
conspicuous  examples  of  practical  wisdom,  would 
become  gradually  less  tolerant  of  attempts  to  increase 
and  embitter  the  spheres  of  hostile  interests  and  to 
restrict  the  spheres  of  common  interests.  If  that  be 
so,  the  time  will  arrive  when,  without  any  imposition 
of  disarmament  by  authority,  nationality  itself  will  lose 
its  present  intensive  value,  and  take  its  place  as  a 
pleasing  but  subordinate  interest  among  those  larger 
interests  which  have  been  allowed  to  grow  up  among 
all  the  nations  alike.  Then  the  present  aggressive 

297 


methods  devoted  to  the  protection  of  nationality  will 
appear  universally  out  of  proportion  to  the  object  for 
which  they  exist ;  and  a  special  lumber-room  of  history 
will  be  ready  for  their  reception  as  fit  objects  of  the 
researches  of  the  archaeologist  and  the  antiquary.  They 
will  drop  out  of  use  simply  because  they  are  not  wanted, 
as  has  been  the  case  with  hundreds  of  pieces  of  legal 
machinery  which  public  opinion  has  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  break  but  has  merely  ceased  to  employ. 

Meantime  the  advocates  of  peace  can  find  an  exten- 
sive field  for  the  propagation  of  reasonable  views  on 
national  and  international  questions  without  stirring 
up  mischievous  animosities  by  direct  attacks  upon 
militarism.  Any  approach,  even  in  an  intellectual  or 
artistic  sphere,  to  sympathetic  contact  between  different 
communities  counts  something  towards  the  preparation 
of  the  fitting  atmosphere  of  conciliation  which  will  make 
it  easier  for  the  rulers  of  nations  to  enter  into  harmonious 
co-operation  for  common  ends.  Although  neither  a 
common  religion,  nor  a  common  literary  heritage,  nor 
common  scientific  attainments,  have  broken  down  the 
barriers  which  separate  nations — because,  as  we  have 
seen,  these  general  possessions  are  necessarily  coloured 
by  particularist  sentiment — yet  it  is  not  difficult  to 
imagine  that  without  the  broadening  of  the  national 
outlook  due  to  sympathetic  acquaintance  with  foreign 
literary,  scientific,  artistic  and  religious  thought,  war 
between  European  nations  would  have  been  more 
frequent  than  has  actually  been  the  case.  Every  lover 
of  peace  will,  therefore,  welcome'  the  work  of  those 
multitudinous  International  Societies  which  endeavour 
to  bring  sections  of  different  communities  into  sympa- 
thetic relationship  on  the  ground  of  their  common 
interest  in  matters  literary,  scientific,  legal,  mercantile, 
philanthropic,  social,  or  purely  pleasure-seeking.  All 
these  agencies  cannot  but  help  to  prepare  a  common 
public  attitude  which  will  make  extended  international 
action  in  the  great  matters  of  Politics  more  feasible 
and  more  likely  to  succeed.  But  the  most  essential 
condition  on  which  these  various  agencies  all  work  is 
the  condition  that  no  matters  shall  be  directly  broached 
which  injure  the  national  sentiment  of  any  section  of 

298 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

the  particular  society,  a  practical  proof  of  the  unwisdom 
of  direct  attacks  upon  national  armaments  as  embodying 
national  susceptibilities. 

The  recognition  of  community  of  interest  as  the 
historic  basis  of  national  harmony,  and  as  a  practicable 
basis  for  international  harmony,  disposes,  at  any  rate, 
of  any  theory  of  Race  as  an  objective  factor  in  national 
or  international  evolution.  Our  plenipotentiaries  worked 
as  harmoniously  with  those  of  Japan  as  with  those  of 
the  United  States  in  securing  safety  of  life  at  sea ;  but 
there  is  still  a  good  deal  of  work  to  do  in  destroying  the 
subjective  influence  of  fantastic  racial  theories;  and  one 
might,  perhaps,  suggest  that  if  there  is  one  sphere  suited 
to  the  propagation  of  direct  arguments  in  international 
affairs  it  is  in  spreading  the  view  that  Race,  on  its 
practical  side,  is  of  no  importance  as  an  element  in 
.social  evolution.  When  once  the  peoples  of  Europe  are 
educated  into  the  knowledge  that  none  of  them  is 
marked  by  racial  superiority  or  inferiority  to  any  of 
the  others;  that  superiority  of  national  character  can 
only  be  attained  by  superiority  of  national  achievement, 
they  will  cease  to  entertain  the  notion  that  national 
character  is  unalterable  and  therefore  unimprovable. 
Thus  will  a  very  important  advance  have  been  effected 
in  the  direction  of  preparing  a  sound  public  opinion 
on ''the  subject  of  nationality,  because  thus  it  will  be 
demonstrated  that  nations  are  what  they  are  as  much 
because  of  what  they  owe  to  other  nations  as  because 
of  what  they  owe  to  themselves.  The  public  opinion 
of  the  nations  will  recognize  that  everything  which 
narrows,  restricts  or  secludes  their  national  environment 
will  only  tend  to  impoverish  their  physical,  intellectual 
and  moral  achievements;  and  that  everything  which 
deepens,  widens  and  enriches  their  national  environment 
will  tend  to  exalt  and  perfect  them  among  the  peoples 
of  the  world.  The  intelligence  of  the  national  popula- 
tions, thus  cultivated  and  prepared,  will  operate  to 
broaden  still  further  the  scope  of  national  interests, 
and  with  wider  interests  will  come  wider  sympathies, 
until  ever-widening  sympathies  will  necessarily  remove 
from  between  the  nations  those  hatreds  and  hostilities 
which  by  the  same  process  have  been  removed  from 

299 


RACE  AND  NATIONALITY 

between  the  various  "  Races "  who  now  live  side  by 
side  under  the  same  national  institutions  as  their  once 
"  hereditary "  enemies.  If  nationality  is  based,  not 
upon  Race,  but  upon  organic  continuity  of  common 
interest,  then  nationality  must  necessarily  become  less 
selfish  and  exclusive  as  the  nations  find  the  sphere  of 
their  common  interests  broaden,  and  the  sphere  of  their 
antagonistic  interests  diminish.  And  if  the  nations, 
inspired  by  this  practical  ideal,  find  themselves  increas- 
ingly able  to  enter  into  actual  co-operation  towards  the 
fruition  of  a  common  purpose,  we  shall  be  within 
reasonable  distance  of  realizing  that  "  Federation  of 
the  World,"  that  "  League  of  the  Nations,"  which  was 
once  confined  to  the  dreams  of  idealists  and  poets,  but 
which  has  now  laid  hold  on  the  minds  and  purposes  of 
experienced  statesmen,  subtle  diplomatists  and  serious 
political  thinkers,  and  may,  perhaps,  soon  attain  to  the 
only  condition  of  its  final  success — cordial  and  permanent 
acceptance  by  those  in  whose  hands  lies  the  real  power 
of  settling  the  destinies  of  humanity,  the  disciplined 
democracies  of  the  civilized  world. 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITS*. 
BRUNSWICK  ST.,  STAMFORD  ST.,  S.F..  1,  AND  BUNGAY,  SUFFOLK. 


University  of  California 

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